Revealing Dominant Oxidative Species in Reactive Oxygen Species-Driven Rapid Chemical Etching.

Ye, Mao; Xu, Tao; Liu, Min; Zhu, Yatong; Yuan, Dundong; Zhang, Hao; Qin, Ming; Sun, Litao · Nano Lett · 2023

basic_science · Level V

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Abstract

Reactive oxygen species (ROS) widely participate in a variety of chemical reactions in biological and chemical applications. However, due to the extremely short lifetime of most ROS, conventional ROS-detecting techniques cannot show real-time dynamic changes of ROS-driven chemical reactions and identify the actual role of individual reactive species in these reactions. Herein, using <i>in situ</i> liquid cell TEM complemented by <i>ex situ</i> experiments, we directly visualize ROS-driven rapid etching of Prussian bule (PB) in real time and identify the dominant reactive species in etching processes. The results reveal that highly oxidative <sup>•</sup>OH is the dominant reactive radical in ROS-driven rapid chemical etching and hollow mesoporous PB nanoparticles can be synthesized on a minute-level time scale via <sup>•</sup>OH-dominated rapid etching. This work provides insight into ROS-related oxidation, which can continuously improve our understanding of ROS chemistry and make ROS more widely applicable in advanced chemical etching.