Cascade Catalysts Based on Colloidal Engineering

We see significant progress in the preparation of nanoreactors that host incompatible catalysts for cascade reactions,yet their preparation typically requires specialized,multistep synthetic routes.Here,we utilize core-satellite microparticles as a versatile strategy for the site isolation of catalysts in core and satellites.The core-satellite clusters are prepared by mixing specific amounts of negatively charged core microparticles(e.g.,acid catalyst)with positively charged satellites(e.g.,base catalyst).Core and satellite are made from incompatible polymers allowing solvent-annealing of clusters into different morphologies(raspberry,patchy,and core-shell)while maintaining site isolation of the catalysts.The core-satellite microparticles show very good catalytic activity in a model one-pot acid/base cascade reaction with subtle differences regarding particle morphology.Raspberry microparticles thereby demonstrated the highest reaction rate and yield,likely due to an alleviated diffusion pathway for the reactants.Finally,we show that this colloidal engineering strategy can be extended to multifunctional microparticles suitable to perform multistep cascade reactions in one pot.