A facile method for the preparation of hollow silver spheres

A new method for the preparation of hollow silver spheres was proposed. In the preparation process the mercapto groups played an important role in the process of forming starch/silver core–shell structure, which provided nucleation sites for the growth of a silver shell. Removal of the starch core is realized by degrading the starch template with α-amylase. The morphology of the starch/silver core–shell nanocomposite and the hollow silver spheres was characterized by TEM and AFM.