Title
Fabrication of micro/mesoporous silica tubes templated by electrospun cellulose acetate fibers
Authors
CHENGYING JIA SIYUAN HE JUNLONG SONG YONGCAN JIN WENYUAN ZHU and QIANG CHENG

Received December 14, 2015
Published Volume 51 Issue 7-8 July-August
Keywords electrospinning, cellulose acetate, template, micro/mesoporous silica tubes

Abstract
Micro/mesoporous silica microtubes (SMTs) were fabricated with a facile approach using electrospun cellulose acetate fibers (CAEF) as template. The sol-gel reactions of tetraethoxysilane (TEOS) were employed to apply a layer of silica onto the CAEF in the media of ethanol and water, in the presence of cetyltrimethyl ammonium bromide (CTAB). The additions of CTAB, TEOS and the solvent system affected the formation of SMTs greatly. Under the optimal conditions, the SMTs were obtained after calcination with a shell thickness of about 100 nm and inner diameter from hundreds of nanometers to 1 micrometer. BET surface areas of SMTs were determined to be 765 m2/g. The prepared SMTs are promising in drug delivery and other applications due to the combination of a hollow structure with mesopores in the walls.