Nanocatalosomes as Plasmonic Bilayer Shells with Interlayer Catalytic Hot Nanospaces for Solar‐Light‐Induced Reactions

Paramount interest and challenges remain in designing and synthesizing catalysts with nature-like complexities at few-nm scale to harness unprecedented functionalities by using sustainable solar light. We introduce "nanocatalosomes"- bio-inspired bilayer-vesicular design of nanoreactor with metallic bilayer hollow shell-in-shell structure, having numerous controllable confined cavities within few-nm interlayer space, customizable with different noble metals. The intershell-confined plasmonically-coupled hot-nanospaces within the few-nm cavities play pivotal role in harnessing synergistic catalytic effects for various important organic transformations, as demonstrated by 'acceptorless dehydrogenation', 'Suzuki-Miayura cross-coupling' and 'alkynyl-annulation' affording clean conversions and TOF at least one order of magnitude higher than state-of-the-art Au-nanorod-based plasmonic-catalysts. This work paves the way towards next-generation nanoreactors, craftable at few-nm scale to maximize their functionality and customizable to carry out diverse chemical transformations efficiently with green solar energy.