Professor In Su Lee (CHEM) and Jin Goo Kim (CHEM M.S.-Ph.D. integrated) dev- eloped new nano- sphere that can become solid or hollow as external environment changes using nanosized spherical compound of manganese and oxide silica. Nanosphere,  far too small to be seen by the human eye, has been studied to be applied in wide area including medicine and electronic device.
When manganese oxide nanosphere enclosed by silica gets heated in a hydrogen atmosphere, manganese oxide spreads to the shell, making hollow silicate nanosphere. When the atmosphere changes into air, the hollow sphere gets refilled with manganese oxide. The researchers added catalytic Platinum nanocrystals to enable low-temperature reduction, and completed solid-to-hollow-to-solid transforming nanosphere.
This nanosphere is expected to be advanced to “smart” material of which functioning can be easily controlled by external environment. Also, scientists expect that this study will help understanding chemical reactions in nanoscale particles.
The paper was published at Journal of the American Chemical Society, selected as head paper and spotlighted on Recent JACS Publications.