One-Step Synthesis of Hydrophobic Multicompartment Organosilica Microspheres with Highly Interconnected Macro-mesopores for the Stabilization of Liquid Marbles with Excellent Catalysis

The combination of an emulsion template with polymerization is a very convenient approach to the one-step realization of both simple control porous structures via a change in emulsion formulation and easy functionalization via the concomitant choice of an on-demand monomer. A major challenge of this approach is the inherent instability of the oil/water interface in emulsions, especially the occurrence of chemical reactions in oil or aqueous phases. This study reports the pioneering preparation of highly interconnected macro-mesopores and multicompartment (HIMC) vinyl organosilica microspheres with hydrophobicity by the one-step formation of W/O/W emulsions acting as a template. The emulsion system consists of acidified deionized water, a stabilizer, and vinyltriethoxysilane (VTEO) in which VTEO can be used to produce an organosilica skeleton of the resultant microsphere by a sol–gel process. The study demonstrated that the marvelous stability of W/O/W emulsions aids the formation of multicompartment organ...