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Updated: Dec 20, 2025

Rendering SiO2/Si Surfaces Omniphobic by Carving Gas-Entrapping Microtextures Comprising Reentrant and Doubly Reentrant Cavities or Pillars
Published on: February 11, 2020
Hollow Silica Cubes with Customizable Porosity
Samuel Hugh Gallagher1, Olivier Trussardi1, Oliver Lipp1
1Institute of Chemistry and Biotechnology, Zurich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW), CH-8820 Wädenswil, Switzerland.
Abstract:
Hollow silica cubes were synthesized by a deposition of a thin silica shell onto micrometer-sized hematite cubes. Ordered mesopores with well-defined pore diameters of 2.8 nm and 3.8 nm were introduced into the silica shell by means of pseudomorphic transformation after removal of the hematite core. The particles retained their cubic morphology upon pseudomorphic transformation, allowing for the preparation of close-packed layers of the hollow mesoporous silica cubes by drop-casting and the visualization of the hollow core by focused ion beam scanning electron microscopy.
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