Remodeling nanodroplets into hierarchical mesoporous silica nanoreactors with multiple chambers

Multi-chambered architectures have attracted much attention due to the ability to establish multifunctional partitions in different chambers, but manipulating the chamber numbers and coupling multi-functionality within the multi-chambered mesoporous nanoparticle remains a challenge. Herein, we propose a nanodroplet remodeling strategy for the synthesis of hierarchical multi-chambered mesoporous silica nanoparticles with tunable architectures. Typically, the dual-chambered nanoparticles with a high surface area of ~469 m2 g−1 present two interconnected cavities like a calabash. Furthermore, based on this nanodroplet remodeling strategy, multiple species (magnetic, catalytic, optic, etc.) can be separately anchored in different chamber without obvious mutual-crosstalk. We design a dual-chambered mesoporous nanoreactors with spatial isolation of Au and Pd active-sites for the cascade synthesis of 2-phenylindole from 1-nitro-2-(phenylethynyl)benzene. Due to the efficient mass transfer of reactants and intermediates in the dual-chambered structure, the selectivity of the target product reaches to ~76.5%, far exceeding that of single-chambered nanoreactors (~41.3%).