Au-induced polyvinylpyrrolidone aggregates with bound water for the highly shape-selective synthesis of silica nanostructures

Novel Au-induced polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) aggregates with bound water (PVP-water) were created for the highly shape-selective synthesis of distinctive silica nanostructures, such as core-shell spheres, rods, snakes, tubes, capsules, thorn-like, and dendritic morphologies. A water/PVP/ n-pentanol system was first designed to bind water to PVP, and then Au nanoparticles were used to induce the PVPwater species to aggregate into distinctive soft structures by exploiting the interplay between PVP and gold. This was confirmed by the IR absorption spectra. The bound water in the soft structures was consumed during the hydrolysis of tetraethylorthosilicate and the target silica nanostructures were obtained. The soft structures, and therefore, the silica morphologies, can be readily tuned by adjusting the experimental parameters. The tunable Au-induced PVP-water soft structures reported herein open up new dimensions for the synthesis of distinctive nanomaterials (other than silica) that have new physicochemical properties and applications. These soft structures were also successfully extended to synthesize ZnO and SnO2 particles with remarkable shapes, such as spheres, leaves, T-shaped structures, and dendritic morphologies.