A novel process to prepare a hollow silica sphere via chitosan-polyacrylic acid (CS-PAA) template

Hollow silica spheres were synthesized by using a chitosan-polyacrylic acid (CS-PAA) template. Polyacrylic acid (PAA) was titrated into the dissolved chitosan solution to form CS-PAA particles. For forming the core-shell particle, colloidal silica which was prepared from homogeneous nucleation was mixed with a solution of CS-PAA particles. Colloidal silica was adsorbed on to the surface of the CS-PAA particles to form a shell structure. CS-PAA could be removed from the core of the core-shell particles by adjusting with HCl to pH < 1 for forming the hollow silica structure. The outside particle size diameter, shell thickness, specific surface, pore diameter and pore volume of the final hollow silica sphere are about 200 nm, 20 nm, 350.95 m2/g, 5.4078 nm and 0.516768 cm3/g, respectively.