Novel Synthesis of Submicrometer Silica Spheres in Non-alcoholic Solvent by Microwave-assisted Sol–Gel Method

Monodisperse submicrometer silica spheres in the range of 200–700 nm diameter were rapidly prepared in less than 3 min by sol–gel reaction of tetramethoxysilane with assistance of 2.54 GHz, 500-W microwave irradiation in non-alcoholic diglyme solution in the presence of an acidic catalyst.