ABSTRACT
Engineering properties of materials such as colour stability under UV, elevated temperatures and aggressive environments, and skid and abrasion resistance are main challenges faced by the commercial coating materials, leading to more demand of natural materials as sustainable agents. Lately, nanostructured core–shell pigments with unique compositions have widely been utilised in the composite materials to enhance their properties. Core–shell particles exhibit smart properties and have immense benefits when combined with the building materials. Based on these facts, we comprehensively overview the state-of-the-art research of core–shell nanomaterials in terms of their preparation and performance evaluation methods as well as feasible applications. The first part of this chapter discusses about the effective shell materials including most common silica and titanium oxides. In addition, nanotechnology-enabled production and patterning of low-dimensional materials for widespread applications is emphasised. The second part deals with various potential core materials used to achieve core–shell nanostructures. The third part of this chapter highlights some interesting mechanisms of core–shell structures in the modified systems that display high stability, durability, efficiency and eco-friendliness. Finally, different applications of these core–shell nanostructures are underscored together with test methods to evaluate their performance.
