Salt ions can control supraparticle structure during spray-drying of colloids, but they affect functionality–Volatile ammonium carbonate offers a smart workaround

This upload contains all production data for the related publication. Abstract of the publication is: Salts were found to be useful in order to manipulate the structure formation and shaping of supraparticles duringspray-drying. However, commonly utilized salts such as calcium chloride (CaCl2) remain in the framework of thesupraparticles and thus, potentially interfere with the properties of the supraparticles. In this study, ammoniumcarbonate ((NH4)2CO3) is introduced as a structure-directing agent and compared to CaCl2. Due to its thermaldecomposability into gaseous species, (NH4)2CO3 can be completely post-synthetically removed by a simple heattreatment. Thus, undesired washing steps of the supraparticle products are avoided and interferences of the saltwith the functional properties of supraparticles are eliminated. These advantages are highlighted for the exampleof hydrogen-indicating gasochromic supraparticles. In summary, (NH4)2CO3 acts as a structure-directing agentwithout affecting the intrinsic properties of the supraparticles, making it suitable for applications in systemswhere residual salt is undesired.