Preparation of silica hollow fibers by surface-initiated atom transfer radical polymerization from electrospun fiber templates

Silica hollow fibers were produced by surface-initiated atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) from poly(methyl methacrylate-co-vinylbenzyl chloride) (P(MMA-co-VBC)) electrospun fibers combined with sol-gel process and subsequent calcination. Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) were used to characterize the intermediate products and the silica hollow fibers. The resulting silica hollow fibers are of high purity with amorphous morphology. The thickness of the hollow fibers is approximately 0.25 µm.