Synthesis method for silica needle-shaped nano-hollow structure

Silica needle-shaped nano-hollow structure with high specific surface area was prepared by a sol-gel approach using needle-shaped calcium carbonate (CaCO3) nanoparticles as novel template and sodium silicate as the silica source, followed by washing in acidic solution to remove the CaCO3 sacrificial template. The sample was characterized by transmission electron microscope (TEM), scanning electron microscope (SEM), energy disperse spectroscopy (EDS), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) and BET. The results show that regular uniform silica nano-hollow tubes are obtained: the length of the hollow tubes ranges from 200 nm to 300 nm with a inside diameter about 20 nm, the thickness of the tubes is around 10 nm, the specific surface area of the sample is up to 321.4 m(2)/g, the average pore diameter is 63.83 angstrom and the total pore volume is 0.5128 cm(3)/g. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.