Hot off the press! New publication in Chem. Commun.

Crystallization of hollow mesoporous silica nanoparticles

Glenna L. Drisko, Adrian Carretero-Genevrier, Alexandre Perrot, Martí
Gich, Jaume Gàzquez, Juan Rodriguez-Carvajal, Luc Favre, David Grosso,
Cédric Boissière,  Clément Sanchez

ChemComm, DOI: 10.1039/x0xx00000x

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Complex 3D nacrostructured nanoparticles are  transformed from amorphous silica into pure polycrystalline α-quartz using catalytic quantities of  alkaline earths as devitrificants. Walls as thin as 10 nm could be crystallized without losing the architecture of the particles. The roles of cation size and the mol% of  incorporated devitrificant on crystallization behavior are studied, with Mg2+, Ca2+, Sr2+ and Ba2+  allproducing pure α-quartz under certain conditions.