Complex Hollow Bowl-Like Nanostructures: Synthesis, Application, and Perspective

Contourable design and synthesis in nanomaterial morphology are among the most attractive fields in material science. Among the various nanomaterials, hollow bowl-like nanomaterials have shown promising potential and achieved great success in many different domains, such as lithium-ion batteries, supercapacitors, and electro- and photochemical catalysts. The unique physicochemical properties of hollow bowl-like nanomaterials have attracted enormous interest from scientists worldwide. Here, recent researches into bowl-like nanomaterials, including: (i) synthesis methods, such as the no-template, no-patchy template, and patchy template methods; (ii) applications in lithium/sodium/potassium ion-based batteries, microwave absorption, water-splitting reactions, and so on are reviewed; and (iii) the problems and challenges are also discussed.