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Carbon nanodots (CDs) have been synthesized at gram scale with a high yield (41.8%) by carbonization of sucrose with oil acid in one simple step. The synthesized CDs are monodisperse with a narrow size distribution (average 1.84 nm in size), and show a high fluorescence quantum yield (21.6%) without passivation. The PL intensity of the obtained CDs is pH independent over a range of 2-8. Besides, their PL intensity remains unchanged even after six hours of UV excitation and six months of storage, exhibiting excellent stability. The obtained CDs have been used for cell imaging. The results demonstrate that the prepared CDs have great potential for real applications.

Here, a new class of quantum dots, that is, sulphur quantum dots (SQDs), which are synthesized by the phase interfacial reaction, is reported. The prepared SQDs are monodisperse with a narrow size distribution (average 1.6 nm in size), excellent aqueous dispersibility, ultrahigh photostability, and lowly toxicity. Because of abundant oxidized sulphur species on the surface of SQDs, the incorporation of TiO2 with SQDs results in a synergistic effect for the TiO2‐based photocatalysts offering more effective environmental applications. It is demonstrated that SQDs‐TiO2 nanocomposite can enhance the photocatalytic activity of producing hydrogen (enhancement factor for 191) in methanol‐water system. The SQDs also can used as fluorescent probe for highly selective quantitative detection Fe3+ in an aqueous solution contained various metal ions.

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A novel double-shell TiO2 hollow sphere with an inner anatase shell and an outer rutile shell was synthesized by a simple sol-gel method and silica protected calcination process. The structure and formation mechanism was proposed based on characterization using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The double-shell spheres have a uniform diameter of 360 nm and a typical yolk-shell structure. Moreover, the double-shell TiO2 hollow spheres possess a large specific surface area (169 m(2) g(-1)). Due to the high surface area, multiple light reflection and beneficial electron conduction between the inner anatase and outer rutile shell of this special structure, the as-prepared double-shell TiO2 catalysts show remarkably enhanced photoactivity compared to the commercial P25 catalyst. In particular, rhodamine B molecules can be completely decomposed in the presence of the double-shell spheres after 60 minutes of irradiation with UV light. In addition, the high activity is retained after five cycles, indicating the stability and reusability of the double-shell catalyst.

To improve and extend the SiO2 template method for preparing metal oxide hollow spheres, a general and facile "sol-gel and hydrothermal" method is developed to replace the current "sol-gel, calcination, and base-etching" processes for the construction of well-defined sandwich metal oxide@noble metal NP@metal oxide hollow spheres. As-synthesized hollow spheres exhibit high performances in various catalytic reactions.

A facile and effective way for the preparation of nano-sized Fe3O4@graphene yolk-shell nanoparticles via a hydrothermal method is developed. Moreover, the targeting properties of the materials for anticancer drug (doxorubicin hydrochloride) delivery are investigated. Excitingly, these hybrid materials possess favorable dispersibility, good superparamagnetism (the magnetic saturation value is 45.740 emu g(-1)), high saturated loading capacity (2.65 mg mg(-1)), and effective loading (88.3%). More importantly, the composites exhibit strong pH-triggered drug release response (at the pH value of 5.6 and 7.4, the release rate was 24.86% and 10.28%, respectively) and good biocompatibility over a broad concentration range of 0.25-100 μg mL(-1) (the cell viability was 98.52% even at a high concentration of 100 μg mL(-1)) which sheds light on their potentially bright future for bio-related applications.