A multi-shelled NiO hollow sphere was synthesized by a facile glucose-mediated hydrothermal route. The carbonaceous microsphere was utilized as a sacrificial template for the formation of multi-shells. All the shells were formed by a single pyrolysis step. The multi-shelled hollow sphere can provide enhanced active surface area and additional reactive sites, which facilitate faster ion intercalation and deintercalation, and play key roles in electrochromic devices and sensing application, including glucose sensing. Herein, we employed the as-synthesized material for electrochromic devices. As expected, NiO multi-shelled hollow microspheres exhibit a superior transmission modulation (ΔT = 47%) and yield a coloration efficiency of ~ 85.3 cm² C⁻¹, which is ~ 2.37 times higher than that of NiO microflakes which was synthesized in the absence of glucose. The geometry of the self-supported multi-shelled architecture ensures that the active faradaic sites can be in intimate contact with the electrolyte to enhance ionic diffusion. The observed colored and bleached switching time of multi-shelled hollow sphere is 6.7 s and 2.7 s respectively. A quasi-solid-state electrochromic device is also displayed with the aid of gel electrolyte with reversible color change from dark brown to transparent. Furthermore, the multi-shelled NiO displayed excellent catalytic activity towards non-enzymatic glucose sensing with a high sensitivity of 1646 ± 5 μA cm⁻² mM⁻¹ over a linear range of 2 μM–2.6 mM with a lowest detection limit of 1.5 ± 0.2 μM. Analysis on blood serum as a real biological sample reflects the practicability of the fabricated sensor. Developing hollow structured multi-shelled materials based on metal oxides will pave the way to design advanced electrode materials for electrochromic smart windows and non-enzymatic glucose sensors.

通过方便的葡萄糖介导的水热路线合成了多壳NiO空心球。碳质微球被用作形成多壳的牺牲模板。所有壳都是通过单个热解步骤形成的。多壳空心球可提供增强的活性表面积和其他反应位点，从而促进更快的离子嵌入和脱嵌，并在电致变色设备和传感应用（包括葡萄糖传感）中发挥关键作用。在这里，我们将合成后的材料用于电致变色器件。如预期的那样，NiO多壳空心微球表现出优异的透射调制（ΔT = 47％），着色效率约为〜85.3 cm ² C ^-1，这是在没有葡萄糖的情况下合成的NiO微米薄片的〜2.37倍。自支撑多壳结构的几何形状确保了活性法拉第位能与电解质紧密接触，从而增强了离子扩散。观察到的多壳空心球的有色和漂白转换时间分别为6.7 s和2.7 s。准固态电致变色器件也借助凝胶电解质显示，其颜色可从深棕色变为透明。此外，多壳NiO对非酶促葡萄糖感测显示出出色的催化活性，具有1646±5μAcm ^-2 mM ^-1的高灵敏度。在2 μM–2.6 mM的线性范围内，最低检测限为1.5±0.2μM。血清作为真实生物样品的分析反映了所制造传感器的实用性。开发基于金属氧化物的中空结构多壳材料将为设计用于电致变色智能窗户和非酶促葡萄糖传感器的高级电极材料铺平道路。