Pereparation of Hollow Silica Core/Mesoporous Silica Shell Monodisperse Uniform Spheres

Abstract

Hollow silica core/mesoporous silica shell monodisperse uniform spheres were synthesized via a dual-templating method. Specifically designed polystyrene (PS) coated by silica as the core template, while cetyltrimethylammonium bromide served as a co-template to structure the mesopore formation during tetraethoxysilane (TEOS) hydrolysis/condensation. The hollow core and mesoporous structure were formed by calcination which acts as the removable templates. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and scanning electronmicroscopy (SEM) investigations reveal that the morphology and hierarchical structure of the calcined mesoporous silica spheres.