Synthesis of mesoporous silica hollow nanospheres with multiple gold cores and catalytic activity.

The core-shell Au@resorcinol-formaldehyde (RF) nanospheres with multiple cores have been successfully synthesized by a modified Stöber method. After coating mesoporous silica and the calcination, the Au@meso-SiO2 hollow nanospheres with multiple gold cores can be obtained, which have a high surface area (∼537 m(2)/g) and uniform pore size (∼2.5 nm). The Au@meso-SiO2 hollow nanospheres can be used as a catalyst for the reduction of 4-nitrophenol by NaBH4 into 4-aminophenol, and exhibit excellent catalytic performance.