Facile fabrication of fluorescent TiO2 nanoparticles with core–shell structure by a self-templating method

Functional TiO2 core–shell nanoparticles hold great promise for the fabrication of photocatalyst. However, the current methods to fabricate core–shell TiO2 functional nanoparticles were onerous and easy to be polluted. We report herein a simple one-step self-templating method to synthesize the fluorescent core–shell nanoparticles in an O/W emulsion system. During the process, the core–shell structures were obtained by a rapid solidification reaction from the outer face toward the center of the emulsion, The whole process of coating was carried out by the emulsion system self and it required neither surface treatment for TiO2 nanoparticles nor additional surfactant or stabilizer to be the template. It is a wide range application route to coat function compounds rapidly and cleanly.