Reconstruction of Colloidal Spheres by Targeted Etching: A Generalized Self-Template Route to Porous Amphoteric Metal Oxide Hollow Spheres.

Despite the significant progress in developing various synthetic strategies for metal oxide hollow spheres (h-MO), the so-far explored materials are mostly chemically inert metal oxides. Very few attempts have been made for amphoteric metal oxides such as Al2O3 and ZnO due to the difficulties in the control of the dissolution and recrystallization process. Herein, a facile self-template route to the synthesis of amphoteric h-MO with tunable size and shell thickness is developed by targeted etching via an acid-base reaction. With the protection of polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) on the surface, the interior of metal oxide solid colloidal spheres (c-MOs) that possess radially divergent structures could be selectively etched with acid/alkali as an etchant, forming h-MO of Al2O3 and ZnO. Our results also show that a wide variety of metal oxide colloidal spheres can be potential self-templates for targeted etching, which paves the way for developing a generalized strategy for the synthesis of various metal oxide hollow spheres.