A novel method was proposed to fabricate a mesoporous silica microcapsule with Ag nanoparticles (AgNPs) loaded onto the interior wall of a mesoporous silica shell. The mesoporous silica microcapsule-supported AgNPs (denoted as AgNPs@silica microcapsule) was fabricated via a two-step process: (i) Ag⁺ ions were adsorbed on the surface of monodisperse sulfonated polystyrene (PS) beads via electrostatic interaction, and then reduced and protected by polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) to obtain PS–Ag composite spheres. (ii) Silica colloids generated by the hydrolysis and polymerization of tetraethoxysilane (TEOS) were assembled on the PS–Ag composite spheres via hydrogen bond forces to form a silica shell, followed by the removal of the PS core and PVP through calcinations. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy-dispersive X-ray (EDS), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and X-ray diffractometery (XRD) were adopted to analyze the as-prepared AgNPs@silica microcapsule. Furthermore, the antibacterial properties of this unique structured material were investigated as well. The results show that the AgNPs, with the form of elementary substance, dispersely load onto the interior wall of silica shell, and the shell is composed of a single layer of interconnected silica particles and mesopores. This unique structure can effectively avoid the aggregation problem existing in traditional Ag colloid system and slowly release Ag⁺ ions, which will diffuse to the external medium through the mesopore channels in the shell, inducing antibacterial activity. The antibacterial activity against Escherichia coli (E. coli) can reach up to 99.8% and, more importantly, can maintain a high level for long periods over two months. The AgNPs@silica microcapsule can combine the advantages of high surface area materials and large-scale materials, achieving both high antibacterial activity and easy recycling characteristics, thus showing its great potential as an antimicrobial agent.

Transition metal phosphides (TMPs) represent an important class of compounds with metalloid characteristics and good electrical conductivity, which are of great benefit to enhance electrochemical performances. Thus it is important to clarify the correlation between the electrochemical properties and the phosphating degree of the precursor. Herein, we report a superior electrode for battery-like capacitors based on NiCo₂O₄/NiCoP hetero-structure nanoflake-nanowire arrays grown on nickel foams using a one-pot facile hydrothermal approach and a controllable phosphorization treatment method. The Ni–Co precursor nanoflake-nanowire array based electrode treated with 500 mg NaH₂PO₂ shows significantly improved electrochemical performances with an ultrahigh specific capacitance of 2288.8 F g⁻¹ and 1644 F g⁻¹ at a current density of 1 A g⁻¹ and 20 A g⁻¹, respectively. The electrode also shows superior cycling stability. In addition, the NiCo₂O₄/NiCoP//AC device exhibits a relatively high energy density of 35.5 W h kg⁻¹ at 750.4 W kg⁻¹. The results suggest that this NiCo₂O₄/NiCoP nanoflake-nanowire array is a promising electrode material for high performance hybrid supercapacitor applications.

Protonation pretreatment promotes the formation of a uniform g-C ₃ N ₄ /AgBr nanocomposite, thereby efficiently enhancing the photocatalytic activity through the Z-scheme charge transfer.

A novel g-C₃N₄@BiOI p–n surficial dispersive heterojunction photocatalyst was constructed by simply loading g-C₃N₄ nanoparticles on flower-like BiOI nanosheets.

A facile template-free method was proposed to fabricate a novel network structured mesoporous g-C₃N₄/TiO₂nano-heterojunction compositeviaprotonation of base functionalities during thein situgrowth of TiO₂nanoparticles on the surface of g-C₃N₄under hydrothermal conditions.

Novel Nb-doped Bi₂WO₆ nanosheets have been successfully synthesized by a simple hydrothermal method.