A general and eco-friendly self-etching route to prepare highly active and stable Au@metal silicate yolk-shell nanoreactors for catalytic reduction of 4-nitrophenol

In this work, we demonstrate a general and eco-friendly self-etching route for the construction of a series of yolk-shell Au@metal silicate nanoreactors. Different from previous conventional synthesis routes to remove the hard silica templates, a facile, mild, and green hydrothermal method is employed in our system based on NH3-NH4Cl buffer. Additionally, due to the uniform shape, large surface area, porosity, penetrability, and anti-degradation property, the well-designed nanoreactors reveal remarkable catalytic activity, fascinating thermal stabilization, and superior recycling. The methodology presented here can provide a general route to prepare other versatile multifunctional nanostructures for catalysis under complex conditions. we expect that our strategy can be extended to other applications such as energy conversion, information storage, water treatment as well as drug delivery systems.