Preparation of hollow silica beads via soft template calcinating route

Heat treated hollow silica beads have been prepared via a two-step method: the fast synthesis of mesoporous hollow silica beads via soft template method and the closing of the porosity of as prepared hollow silica beads in a vertical furnace at more than 1,000 °C. The experiment results showed that the size of the as prepared hollow silica beads was greatly affected by the size of the octylamine vesicles, which increased as the mixing rate decreased, and the optimal synthesis time was 5 min. Fourier transform-infrared spectroscopy results indicated that the soft template was incorporated in as prepared hollow silica beads. The optical photographs and the X-ray diffraction results indicated that the shell of as prepared hollow silica beads was fully densified in the high temperature furnace. In addition, the morphology observation of polypropylene/polyolyaltha olfin/heat treated hollow silica beads ternary composites indicated that this type of silica beads possessed high intensity and strength to blend with the polypropylene/polyolyaltha olfin composites.