A novel method for the fabrication of monodisperse hollow silica spheres.

In this paper, we report a novel method for the fabrication of small monodisperse hollow silica spheres. In this approach, when silica shells were coated on polystyrene particles by the sol-gel method, the polystyrene cores were dissolved subsequently, even synchronously, in the same medium to form monodisperse hollow spheres. Neither additional dissolution nor a calcination process was needed to remove the polystyrene cores. Transmission electron microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, and porosity measurements were used to characterize the monodisperse hollow silica spheres.