Interfacial reaction growth approach to preparing patterned nanomaterials and beyond

In conventional template-assisted synthesis, a template is used as a physical confiner to control the morphologies of the prepared materials. However, the template can also initiate interfacial reactions to form various patterned materials at its exposed surfaces. This concept can evolve into a general interfacial reaction growth approach in nanofabrications. In this tutorial review, we describe its fundamental issues, recent progress and achievements, and the properties and applications of the prepared nanomaterials before we summarize and give our personal perspectives.