One-pot morphology-controlled synthesis of various shaped mesoporous silica nanoparticles

A simple synthetic method has been developed for synthesis of mesoporous silica nanoparticles with versatile morphologies by adopting CTAB and C-12-OH as dual soft templates. In such a simple method, only by regulating the dose of C-12-OH and temperature, we can well-realize the silica nanoparticle morphological transformation from sphere to shell-like, rugby-like, peanut-like, hollow, and complex yolk-shell structures. These as-fabricated silica nanoparticles were characterized by scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET), and small-angle powder X-ray diffraction. The as-prepared mesoporous silica nanoparticles with versatile morphologies possessing varying BET surface areas, pore diameter, and pore distributions have some potential applications in separation, sensing, and heterogeneous catalysis.