Catalytic ship-in-a-bottle assembly within hollow porous nanocapusles

Large molecules can be assembled from small components exclusively inside hollow nanocapsules with the help of entrapped catalysts. Phenyl isocyanates enter the capsules through nanopores in the capsule shells and form cyclic trimers that remain entrapped. No assembly happens outside the nanocapsules. Further functionalization of trimers produces functional hierarchical nanomaterials.