Facile preparation of hollow-structured mesoporous silica spheres with large and ordered mesochannels

In this study, a facile one-step method was proposed to prepare pore-expanded hollow-structured mesoporous silica spheres. The method hollowed silica spheres, at the same time, expanded mesopores sizes. So this method not only achieved preparation of hollow mesoporous silica spheres by self-templating strategy but also expanded mesochannels. The influences of different pore-expanding agents and the reaction time on the degree of hollowing and pore-expanding were also investigated. The obtained samples possess hollow structure, well-defined spherical morphology, uniform particle size, large mesoporous volume, ordered, and large mesochannels. In addition, the hollow cavity size and the mesoporous size could be controlled via choosing the appropriate pore-expanding agent and reaction time.