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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2018 Jan 9.
Published in final edited form as: ACS Appl Mater Interfaces. 2017 Jun 30;9(27):22259–22267. doi: 10.1021/acsami.7b05664

Figure 1.

Figure 1

Proposed schematic describing the nucleation and self-assembly of silica into nanocomposites regulated by self-assembled SF nanospheres and SS nanofibers. (A) APTES was first added into SF (top) and SS (bottom) solution to form an array of tiny silica nuclei on the surface of SF nanospheres (top) and SS nanofibers (bottom) assembled in the solution, respectively. (B) TEOS was subsequently added into the corresponding solution, and its hydrolysis resulted in the formation of silica on the silica nuclei to induce silica growth on the SF nanospheres (top) and SS nanofibers (bottom). (C) With the addition of more TEOS, continuous growth of silica on the SF nanospheres (top) and SS nanofibers (bottom) gave rise to spherical (top) and fibrous (bottom) silica nanocomposites, respectively.