A facile method to fabricate a series of micrometer scale hollow silica spheres

Hollow silica spheres (HSS) with the controllable diameters of 1.0 to 5.0 μm were successfully synthesized by adjusting the initial doubly distilled water volume in mixed ethanol–water solvent based on a complex approach that dispersion polymerization coexisted with a sol–gel process. The size of the HSS was uniform and the surface of the shell was smooth as observed by SEM. The FT-IR spectrum indicated that the inside core was completely removed. The thermal property and the compositions of core–shell spheres were investigated by TG-DSC.