Portraits of colloidal hybrid nanostructures: Controlled synthesis and potential applications

Inorganic hybrid nanostructures containing two or more nanocomponents have been emerging in many areas of materials science in recent years. The particle–particle interactions in a hybrid particle system could significantly improve existing local electronic structure and induce tunable physiochemical responses. The current work reviews the diverse inorganic hybrid nanostructures formed by adhesion of the different single components via seed-mediated method. The hybrid nanomaterials have great potentials for real applications in many other fields. The nanohybrids have been used as efficient heterocatalysts for carbon monoxide conversion and photodegradation of organic contaminants. The enhanced catalytic activity of these hybrid nanocatalysts could be attributed the formation of oxygen vacancies and electron transfer across the structural junction in a hybrid system as a result of the interfacial particle–particle interactions. The synergistic combination of up-converting and semiconducting properties in an up-converting semiconducting hybrid particle results in appearance of sub-band-gap photoconductivity. This behavior has a great significance for the design of photovoltaic devices for effective solar energy conversion. The functionalization and subsequent bioconjugation of the hybrid nanostructures to afford the multifunctional nanomedical platforms for simultaneous diagnosis and therapy are reviewed. The conjugated multifunctional hybrid nanostructures exhibit high biocompatibility and highly selective binding with functional groups-fabricated alive organs through delivering them to the tumor sites. The clever combinations of multifunctional features and antibody conjugation within these vehicles make them to generally offer new opportunities for clinical diagnostics and therapeutics.

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► Recent progress made in the controlled synthesis of diverse hybrid nanostructures is reviewed.
► Hybrid nanomaterials (e.g., Cu/CeO2 and Pt/TiO2) show superior catalytic activity for CO conversion and photodegradation.
► Up-converting semiconducting hybrid nanostructures show high energy conversion efficiency solar cell.
► Coatings of silica and polymer layers on the hybrid nanoparticles compatible with biomedical applications are described.
► Biomolecule conjugation of water-soluble hybrid nanoparticles and the use of them for simultaneous diagnosis and therapy are highlighted.