Self-Assembled Biomimetic Capsules for Self-Preservation.

The inorganic semiconductor is an attractive material in sewage disposal and solar power generation. The main challenges associated with environment-sensitive semiconductors are structural degradation and deactivation caused by the unfavorable environment. Here, inspired by the pomegranate, a self-protection strategy based on the self-assembly of silver chloride (AgCl) particles is reported. The distributed photosensitive AgCl particles can be encapsulated by themselves through mixing aqueous silver nitrate and protic ionic liquids (PILs). A probable assembling mechanism is proposed based on the electrostatic potential investigation of PILs cations. The AgCl particles inside the shell maintain their morphology and structure well after 6 months light-treatment. Moreover, they exhibit excellent photocatalytic activity, same as newly prepared AgCl particles, for degradation of methyl orange (MO), neutral red (NR), bromocresol green (BG), rhodamine B (RhB), Congo red (CR), and crystal violet (CV).