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It is well-known that silica can be etched in alkaline media or in a unique hydrofluoric acid (HF) solution, which is widely used to prepare various kinds of hollow nanostructures (including silica hollow structures) via silica-templating methods. In our experiments, we found that stöber silica spheres could be etched in generic acidic media in a well-controlled way under hydrothermal conditions, forming well-defined hollow/rattle-type silica spheres. Furthermore, some salts such as NaCl and Na(2)SO(4) were found to be favorable for the formation of hollow/rattle-type silica spheres.
Yu et al. (Mon,) studied this question.