Wet Chemical Synthesis of Silica Nanosheets via Ethyl Acetate-Mediated Hydrolysis of Silica Precursors and Their Applications.

Freestanding and transferable silica nanosheets with thicknesses of ≈5-7 nm are prepared via ethyl acetate-mediated hydrolysis of silica precursors in aqueous solution. The resulting silica nanosheets have shown many potential applications. For example, they can be used as the support film on the finer mesh grids for transmission electron microscopy imaging and as the precursor for the synthesis of silicon nanosheets.