Facile Fabrication of Lilium Pollen-like Organosilica Particles

Organosilica particles with a novel lilium pollen-like morphology were synthesized by a one-step sol-gel method. The hydrolysis and co-condensation of vinyl-trimethoxysilane (VTMS) and tetraethoxysilane (TEOS) took place in an aqueous medium with ammonia as the catalyst. The growth process of the organosilica particles was tracked by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The bulk and surface composition of the lilium pollen-like organosilica particles were characterized by solid-state Si-29 nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), respectively. In addition, bowl-like, golf ball-like, and walnut kernel-like organosilica particles could also be obtained by changing the concentration of ammonia, the amount of silane precursors, or the reaction medium. This study provides a facile method to prepare nonspherical organosilica particles with controllable morphologies.