Silica hollow spheres with nano-macroholes like diatomaceous earth

Artificial synthesis of hollow cell walls of diatoms is an ultimate target of nanomaterial science. The addition of some water-soluble polymers such as sodium polymethacrylate to a solution of water/oil/water emulsion system, which is an essential step of the simple synthetic procedure of silica hollow spheres (microcapsules), led to the formation of silica hollow spheres with nano-macroholes (> 100 nm) in their shell walls, the morphologies of which are analogous to those of diatom earth.