( a - 1 ) synthesis of a pure - silica molecular sieve having a hollow spherical morphology with a pillar inside . to prepare the pure - silica mesoporous molecular sieve having a hollow spherical morphology with a pillar inside the alcohol was added to a clear aqueous solution of the surfactant - silicate under stirring and a gel mixture was formed . after stirring for about 10 - 30 minutes at room temperature , a proper amount of sulfuric acid or other acids was gradually added into the gel mixture . this step takes about 10 - 60 minutes . the ph value of the final mixture was adjusted to about 11 . 5 - 9 . 0 . the molar ratio of the resultant gel composition was about within 1 surfactant :( 3 . 0 - 0 . 3 ) sio 2 :( 2 . 78 - 0 . 40 ) naoh :( 2 . 50 - 0 . 3 ) ha :( 3 . 0 - 0 . 1 ) alcohol :( 50 - 2000 ) h 2 o . the source of the silicon is sodium silicate . the surfactants for use in the reaction system are quaternary ammonium r 1 r 2 r 3 r 4 n + x − , where one of r 1 , r 2 , r 3 , and r 4 is alkyl chain with 6 - 20 carbon atoms , the remainders are the alkyl chains with 1 to 6 carbon atoms and x − is the counterion ( cl − , br − , no 3 − , oh − etc .). ha represents the acid . the alcohol is selected from alkyl or aromatic alcohols . then , the mixture is loaded into an autoclave . subsequently , the mixture is statically heated at about 20 - 250 ° c . for about 1 - 480 hours . the resulting solid products are recovered by filtration , washed with deionized water and dried in air at room temperature or 100 ° c . to remove the organic species in the pores of mesoporous silicate , the as - synthesized sample is calcined in air at 500 - 900 ° c . for about 6 - 12 hours ( heated from room temperature to the desired temperature with a heating rate of 1 . 5 ° c ./ min ). ( a - 2 ) synthesis of an aluminosilicate molecular sieve having a hollow spherical morphology . the aluminosilicate molecular sieve having a hollow spherical morphology . was synthesized with the same process mentioned above in ( a - 1 ) except that a suitable amount of sodium aluminate aqueous solution was added into the solution of surfactant - silicate . the silicate / aluminate molar ratio is about 60 - 10 . ( a - 3 ) synthesis of a pure - silica molecular sieve having a solid spherical morphology . the pure - silica molecular sieve having a solid spherical morphology is synthesized with the same process mentioned above in ( a - 1 ) except that a suitable amount of tetraethylorthosilicate ( teos ) is added into the aqueous solution of surfactant - silicate . the molar ratio of teos / surfactant is about 10 - 0 . 5 . scanning electron microscopy ( sem ) is performed on a hitachi s - 800 or s - 2400 using an accelerating voltage of 20 kev . powder x - ray diffraction ( xrd ) data is collected on a scintag x1 diffractometer using cu kα radiation ( α = 0 . 154 nm ). the transmission electron micrographs ( tem ) are taken on a hitachi h - 7100 operated at 100 kev . the n 2 adsorption - desorption isotherms are obtained at 77k on a micrometric asap 2000 apparatus , which gets a brunaer - emmett - teller ( bet ) surface area . the sample is outgassed at 300 ° c . for about 6 - 12 hours in 10 − 3 torr prior to adsorption . the data is analyzed by the bjh ( barrett - joyner - halenda ) method with the halsey equation for multilayer thickness . to prepare the pure - silica material of hollow ball morphology with a pillar inside , 140g of a 12 % c 14 tmab ( tetradecyltrimethylammonium bromide , 99 %; merck ) aqueous solution was mixed with 11 . 0 g sodium silicate ( 27 % sio 2 and 14 % naoh ; aldrich ). after the resulting mixture was stirred for about 10 minutes at room temperature , 21 . 0 g of 1 . 20m h 2 so 4 solution was added by pipette very slowly ( total time about 30 minutes ). the gel mixture formed after this acidification was allowed to stand for about 20 minutes and then was heated at 100 ° c . for about 48 hours in an autoclave . the solid product recovered by filtration was washed with deionized water , dried at ambient conditions , and calcined at about 540 ° c . in air for about 12 hours to remove the template . fig1 shows the sem micrograph of the calcined silica material prepared from c 14 tmab - silicate system . the morphology of this silica sample is almost completely in hollow - ball structure without micron particle . there are some broken balls in the sample , these reveal that the micron - sized ball is hollow and has a pillar in it . the diameter of these balls is uniformed and about 5 . 0 μm . the gel composition in term of molar ratio is listed as follows : fig2 shows the transmission electron microscopy ( tem ) image of the sample synthesized from the same composition as above , then under 150 ° c . hydrothermal reaction condition for 2 days . it apparently reveals that every hollow ball has a pillar in it and the pillar has different types . fig3 displays the sem photograph of the calcined silica sample synthesized from the dodecyltrimethylammonium chloride ( c 12 tmab )- silicate system . based on the sem micrographs , the percentage of the particles in hollow ball form is more than 60 % for this sample , the rest are in broken ball morphology . the diameter of these balls is about 3 . 0 μm . the gel composition in term of molar ratio is listed as follows : fig4 a displays the sem photograph of the calcined silica sample synthesized from the tetradecyltrimethylammonium bromide ( c 14 tmab )- aluminosilicate system by adding the desired amount of sodium aluminate into the mother solution during the hydrothermal reaction . the morphology is almost totally in uniform hollow spheres of the diameter about 5 μm . some broken spheres show that micron - sized sphere is really hollow and does not have a pillar in it . referring to fig4 b , there exist two tiny holes respectively at the two polar parts of the hollow spheres in a larger magnification . this kind of special morphology could be used as a drug release in the medical or biochemistry field . the gel composition in term of molar ratio is listed as follows fig5 shows the sem photograph of the calcined sample obtained from the c 14 tmab - aluminosilicate system by adding the desired amount of teos into the mother solution during the hydrothermal reaction . the morphology is almost totally in uniform spheres of the diameter about 5 μm . the spheres are actually solid and have more mechanical stability . the spheres entirely preserve after press them . the gel composition in term of molar ratio is listed as follows : the table below is the physical properties of the mesoporous materials of the examples 1 - 4 . from the above description , there are many advantages and characteristics of the invention . the results revealed that uniformed - sized and special micron - sized morphologies , hollow balls or solid spheres , could be easily prepared and tailored by changing the added amount of alcohol and the sio 2 / surfactant ratio . the dimension and shapes of the products are greatly sensitive to various controllable factors , such as surfactant concentration , water content , the carbon chain length of the surfactant , counterions , the addition of salts , the temperature , and the silicon / aluminum ratio or the teos / surfactant ratio . this provided an advantageous technique that we could easily modify the size of the hollow ball or solid sphere in the range of 1 - 10 μm . in particularly , the addition of the alcohol could promote the surfactants - silicate to form a membrane - type structure initially with less condensation at high alkalinity . then , the soft intermediate structure can be bent into the spherical hierarchical structure with gradual silica condensation , which is dependent on the added amount of alcohol and sio 2 / surfactant ratio . the formation of this highly ordered structure is a biomimetic process and the hierarchical structure is alike to that of frustles of marine radiolaria . our results could provide not only a path for understanding the biomineralization process in nature but also a model for preparing the designed structures . in addition to the basic application in the catalysts , supporters and sorbents , the hierarchical materials also have technological as well as fundamental usage . the hollow balls could be used as controllable drug - delivery system , in separation technology and templates for producing micron - sized conducting wires and opticoelectronics . and the solid silicate molecular sieves can be applied as column packing materials . the uniform - sized characteristic of micron - sized morphologies in this invention is really needed for optical crystals . it could improve the analytical resolution greatly . while the invention has been described in terms of a single preferred embodiment , various alternatives and modifications can be devised by those skilled in the art without departing from the invention . accordingly , the present invention is intended to embrace all such alternatives which fall within the scope of the appended claims .