Abstract
Double-shell tubular on-dimensional structure can be fabricated through a layer by layer method, in which the core template was removed to create the tubular shape. In this paper, we report, for the first time, the double nanoshell SiO2/TiO2 hollow tubes prepared through a layer-by-layer deposition method involving the sol-gel process for the SiO2 and TiO2 generation. During TEOS and TEOT hydrolysis/condensation for the SiO2 and TiO2 shell layer formation, cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) is adopted both as the structure-directing template and as the mesopore-channel template distributing around the shell. The obtained double-nanoshell hollow tubes illustrate a large surface area and high pore volume. Also, mesoporous double-nanoshell SiO2/TiO2 hollow tubes have the inner and outer shell thickness of about 80 nm and 120 nm, respectively. Plus, the shell thickness of SiO2 and TiO2 is controllable depending on the used concentration of TEOS and TEOT during their sol-gel process. Therefore, the technique for the preparation of SiO2/TiO2 mesoporous double-nanoshell hollow tubes could provide new insights into the construction of mesoporous double-shell and hollow structure for other multicomponent and hierarchical hybrid systems.
Highlights
During tetraethyl orthosilicate (TEOS) and TEOT hydrolysis/condensation for the SiO2 and TiO2 shell layer formation, cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) is adopted both as the structure-directing template and as the mesopore-channel template distributing around the shell
We report the synthesis of SiO2/TiO2 mesoporous double-shell hollow tubes from (BaSr)CO3/SiO2/TiO2 coredouble-nanoshell rods based on the layer-by-layer method
The structure and composition of (BaSr)CO3 core have been discussed in the published paper by current authors [54, 55]
Summary
Hollow-structured mesoporous materials with unique features of high surface area, high permeability, low density, confined inner cavity, and optical properties have been of great interest and received much research, which makes them a promising application in drug delivery systems [1,2,3], chemical and catalysts [4,5,6,7,8,9,10], biological sensors [11,12,13,14,15,16,17], and solar cells [18,19,20]. The hollowstructured materials enable to enhance the light-scattering effect through adjusting the refractive indices of the empty inner cavity and solid shell [19, 27] Even with these advantages of hollow-structured material, the design of an optimized structure based on the hollow-structure to further enhance their performance for specific application fields remains a challenge. The fabrication of multishell hollow-structured materials with enhanced performance in various applications has been widely studied. The double-shell TiO2 hollow spheres were prepared via the hydrothermal method by Wu et al, exhibiting a reinforced light-scattering ability in the application of dyesensitized solar cell (DSSC) [34]. We report the synthesis of SiO2/TiO2 mesoporous double-shell hollow tubes from (BaSr)CO3/SiO2/TiO2 coredouble-nanoshell rods based on the layer-by-layer method. The formation mechanism for the double-shell SiO2/TiO2 hollow tubes was studied
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