CHARACTERIZATION OF MICRO/NANO POROUS HOLLOW GLASS MICROSPHERES FABRICATED THROUGH VARIOUS CHEMICAL ETCHING PROCESSE FOR USE IN SMART COATINGS

Porous hollow glass microspheres have many uses, including encapsulation of active materials. In this paper a fast and facile method for fabricating porous hollow glass-microspheres was demonstrated by etching them using dilute hydrofluoric acid. Then, a highly reactive amine was infiltrated into the etched glass microspheres. Scanning electron microscopy was conducted for the hollow glass microspheres prior and post etching process. With regards to the porous hollow glass spherical sample, the spherical nature, morphology, pore diameter and the porosity were studied using scanning electron microscopy. Formation of the intact hollow glass microspheres with an open through wall porosities following phase separation and etching of the boron oxide rich phase was demonstrated using reciprocating shaker as the most suitable agitation method. The BET results indicated that the surface of the porous microspheres contained nano-pores. It is believed that the simplicity of the reported fabrication technique of micro/nano porous structure has the potential to scaling up for large scale production