Facile synthesis of vesicle templated hollow germania nanospheres

Abstract

Well-organised hollow germania nanospheres were grown using lipid vesicles as templates. We investigated lipids of varying surface charge, and studied their efficacy as templates for the growth of the nanospheres in the presence and absence of the co-surfactant octadecylamine. From the studies conducted, we found that the surface charges as well as the chemical structures of the templates are important factors for the growth of the nanospheres. We observed that in the case of anionic vesicles, the incorporation of the co-surfactant was crucial for the formation of the nanospheres. The germania nanospheres were constructed by layer by layer deposition of germania onto the templates. Hollow nanospheres were obtained upon calcining the products, thereby removing the lipid templates. The materials obtained were examined by electron microscopy, dynamic light scattering, XRD, FTIR, DTA/TGA, and zeta potential analysis. This method can be applicable for developing hollow nanospheres of controlled size and shape of various metal oxides. Such hollow germania nanospheres may have potential applications in photonics, catalysis and for the development of optical nanosensors.