An ideal catalyst carrier: patchy nanoparticles with dual functional domains of substrate enrichment and catalysis.

Enriching substrates near catalysts is an effective strategy to improve heterogeneous catalytic performance. The surface of PMMA@PIL-PA patchy nanoparticles is segmented into PMMA and PIL-PA domains. The hydrophobic PMMA domain can enrich water-insoluble substrates, while the hydrophilic PIL-PA one catalyzes the reaction of water-soluble and water-insoluble substrates in close proximity. The special patchy nanoparticles with both a hydrophobic substrate warehouse and catalysis functional divisions can effectively improve the catalytic efficiency. They were employed to catalyze the acetal reaction between water-insoluble benzaldehyde and water-soluble ethylene glycol by phosphotungstic acid (PA). Compared with the homo-nanoparticles, the conversion rate was greatly improved.