Multitemplates for the hierarchical synthesis of diverse inorganic materials.

Described here is a new and highly general strategy for multiple-template (multitemplate) patterning. This process is significant because it allows us to create various unusual shapes such as solid spheres, yolk-shell spheres, flowerlike particles, and structured nanocomponents. Alcoholysis of the metal-organic precursors with mixtures of glycerol and various amounts of ethanol followed by calcination yields oxides. The glycerol plays the dual role of hierarchically assembling the metal-organic composites and stabilizing the structures during the subsequent conversions. Furthermore, we demonstrate for the first time that these metal-organic composites can be converted into oxides, nitrides, and highly graphitized carbon nanostructures. We show that these yolk-shell structures display superior photocatalytic activity and electrochemical properties.