Weipeng Lv

Abstract: The design and synthesis of Janus particles has been of broad interest in recent years because of their importance for both of fundamental and applied sciences. [ 1 ] Initially, the main emphasis has been placed on controlling the surface patchiness of particles, where the anisotropy originates from asymmetrical surface functionalities. [ 2 ] More recently, multicompartmental particles have emerged that feature compositionally distinct pockets of distinct materials. [ 3 ] The multicompartmental architecture not only gives rise to defi ned surface patterns, but can result in distinct bulk compartments and therefore truly anisotropic functionalities. Although a number of methods to control surface patchiness, such as line-of-side deposition of metals, or selective surface modifi cation, are similarly applicable to organic as well as inorganic particles, very little is known about bulk-compartmentalized inorganic microand nanoparticles. [ 2b, 4 ] Preparation of purely inorganic particles with defi ned compartmentalization has been more challenging, and their preparation has been limited to toposelective surface modifi cation, [ 5 ] template-directed self-assembly, [ 6 ] controlled phase separation, [ 7 ] and controlled surface nucleation. [ 8 ] Impressive particles including dumbbell-, snowmanor acorn-like particles have been prepared based on these methods to date. Herein, we report a novel approach towards compartmentalized inorganic microparticles using EHD co-jetting with mixtures of inorganic precursors and organic polymers followed