A Facile Method for the Fabrication of Thiol-Functionalized Hollow Silica Spheres

In this paper, we adopt a facile method to prepare a new type of hollow silica spheres with thiol functional groups. Thiol-functionalized silica shells were coated on positively charged polystyrene particles by hydrolysis and condensation of 3-mercaptopropyltriethoxysilane (MPTS); the polystyrene cores were dissolved in the same medium to form monodispersed thiol-functionalized hollow silica spheres. Neither additional dissolution nor a calcination process was needed to remove the polystyrene cores. Transmission electron microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, and Fourier transform infrared analysis and porosity measurements were used to characterize the monodispersed thiol-functionalized hollow silica spheres.