Synthesis of BaMoO4 hollow spheres

Based on the “polymer-cation templates” technique, well-defined BaMoO4 hollow spheres with an average diameter of 2.3 μm have been synthesized via a simple precipitation reaction between BaCl2 and (NH4)6Mo7O24 · 4H2O at room temperature in the presence of poly(methacrylic acid). The size of the hollow spheres could be tuned down to 1.5 μm by decreasing the concentrations of Ba2+ or MoO42− ions in the reaction solution. Compared with current fabrication routines for hollow spheres, this method is facile and cost-effective as no surfactant is needed, and can be applied to produce other inorganic hollow-structured materials.