Templated Self-Assembly of Colloidal Nanocrystals into Three-Dimensional Mesoscopic Structures: A Perspective on Synthesis and Catalytic Prospects

Inorganic nanocrystals (NCs) of uniform size are of eminent importance for the fields of catalysis, energy storage and conversion, and electrochemical devices. Current efforts in science of nanoparticles have focused on the propensity of discrete colloidal NCs to assemble into two or three-dimensional porous architectures. This aspect becomes important, especially, in applications where mass transport-related effects are a concern, such as in catalysis, separation, and chemical sensing. In this perspective, we describe how colloidal nanocrystals can be used as functional building blocks to construct highly porous networks with large and accessible surface area. The synthesis of these mesostructured assemblies, however, is not a simple process and often requires more sophisticated and elegant processing steps. We focused particularly on the potential of a polymer templating technique for the construction of ordered mesostructured assemblies of metal oxide and metal chalcogenide NCs and concentrate on the application of these materials to catalysis.