Preparation of hollow silica nanoparticles using fluorinated surfactant and fluorocarbon solvents

In this study, we used a new class of fluorinated surfactant as a soft template for the preparation of the hollow silica nanoparticles. The size of the hollow silica nanoparticles was enlarged by incorporating a variety of swelling agents (perfluorodecalin, perfluorotributylamine, perfluorooctane, and perfluorooctyl bromide) into the cores of the micelles of the fluorinated surfactant. However, once we used the perfluorinated acids (perfluorooctadecanoic acid and perfluorodecanoic acid) as swelling agents, the structure of silica nanoparticles is solid without the formation of hollow voids.