Formation of monodisperse silica microparticles with various shapes and surface morphologies using double emulsion templates

We report a simple method to generate monodisperse mesoporous silica particles from double emulsion templates generated by glass capillary microfluidic devices. Silica precursors in the middle phase of double emulsion templates are polymerized and self assembled to mesoporous structures of triblock copolymer templates. We find that various types of silica microparticles, including smooth and crumbled microshells, microdisks, and microspheres, can be generated by varying polymerization temperature and the outer fluid. This method provides a convenient strategy to generate silica mesoporous microparticles with a variety of shapes and surface morphologies by tuning a few key parameters. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.