Polymer Reactor with Alterable Substrate Channeling for the Formation of Cascade/Non-cascade-Switchable Catalytic Ability

This study is aimed at the present challenge in self-controlled catalysts, addressing how to furnish the catalysts with cascade/non-cascade-switchable catalytic ability. By borrowing the “soft” properties and autonomous ability from nature, this objective was met by reporting an artificial polymer reactor that was composite of tri-layer architectures made of two inversely-thermosensitive outward layers and a non-responsive middle layer. With the middle layer containing catalytic metal nanoparticles, the two thermosensitive outward layers consisted separately of a negatively-temperature responsive polymer and a positively-temperature responsive composite. The opposite responsiveness at the two thermosensitive outward layers induced convex/flat/concave-switchable shapes in this reactor, leading to cascade/non-cascade-alterable substrate channeling to the reactive middle layer. In this way, this polymer reactor led to the occurrence of cascade/non-cascade-switchable catalytic ability. This design shares a promising prospect with the struggling field of self-controlled catalysts, which allows opportunities to finely control catalytic processes.