Templated Droplet Evaporation-Based Supraparticles in Environmental Applications

Abstract

Designing of innovative technologies for the development of functional materials remain crucial for achieving sustainable technological advancements. In this regard, nanoparticles (NPs) possessing enormous potential properties can be obtained using various facile methods for several applications. Adopting NPs as primitive building blocks can initiate the formation of complex entities named supraparticle (SP) to create several advanced functional materials. Additionally, SPs enable entirely new material characteristics to the system, owing to their individual entities, intrinsic properties such as coupling, spatial arrangement, and co-localization. Indeed, methods such as template-induced evaporation-based assembly of NPs direct the shape, size, and morphology of SPs from their respective colloidal dispersions on a solvent-repellant solid surface. Therefore, it is important to comprehend the formation of SPs and their structure-property relationship with respect to practical application. This review presents a brief overview of SPs assembly by outlining the templated-assisted evaporation-based methodologies for synthesizing SPs. Further, the effect of various factors on the interaction between colloidal entities, solvent, and substrate, leading to the genesis of SPs is elaborated. Conclusively, specific properties are described and applications of SPs for energy storage, generation, and environmental remediation are reported, which collectively brings many interdisciplinary research fields to the same podium.