Tunable fabrication on iron oxide/Au/Ag nanostructures for surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy and magnetic enrichment

Novel lanthanum borate (LaBO₃) hollow nanospheres of size 34 ± 2 nm have been reported for the first time by soft-template self-assembly process. Poly(styrene-b-acrylic acid-b-ethylene oxide) (PS-PAA-PEO) micelle with core–shell–corona architecture serves as an efficient soft template for fabrication of LaBO₃ hollow particles using sodium borohydride (NaBH₄) and LaCl₃?7H₂O as the precursors. In this template, the PS block (core) acts as a template of the void space of hollow particle, the anionic PAA block (shell) serves as reaction field for metal ion interactions, and the PEO block (corona) stabilizes the polymer/lanthana composite particles. The PS-PAA-PEO micelles and the resulting LaBO₃ hollow nanospheres were thoroughly characterized by dynamic light scattering (DLS), transmission electron microscope (TEM), X-ray diffraction, magic angle spinning-nuclear magnetic resonance (¹¹B MAS NMR), energy dispersive X-ray analysis, thermal analyses, Fourier transform infra red spectroscopy, and nitrogen adsorption/desorption analyses. The nitrogen adsorption/desorption analyses and TEM observation of the hollow particles confirmed the presence of disordered mesopores in the LaBO₃ shell domain. The solid state ¹¹B MAS NMR spectra of LaBO₃ hollow nanospheres revealed that the shell part contains both trigonal and tetrahedral boron species. The LaBO₃ hollow particles were applied to anode materials in lithium-ion rechargeable batteries (LIBs). The hollow particles exhibited high coulombic efficiency and charge–discharge cycling capacities of up to 100 cycles in the LIBs.