Mesoporous silica is a versatile material for use in catalysis and adsorption in energy, environmental, and medical applications. Here, for the first time, we report a flame aerosol synthesis method for a class of mesoporous silica materials with hollow, amorphous structure, low density, and specific surface area exceeding 1000 m 2 /g. We show its superior performance vs. MCM-41 in properties relevant to water purification, drug carrier, and thermal insulation applications. Moreover, we produced several types of mesoporous silica-supported nano-catalysts by in situ incorporation of active metals. The generality of this method is demonstrated by decorating mesoporous supports with noble metal, transition metal, and metal oxide nanoclusters, including Pt/SiO 2 , Ni/SiO 2 , CrO 3 /SiO 2 , and Co/Al 2 O 3 . As a prototypical application, we demonstrate dry reforming of methane using Ni/SiO 2 , achieving constant 97% CH 4 and CO 2 conversions for more than 200 hours, dramatically outperforming a corresponding MCM-41 supported Ni catalyst. Thus, this work provides a continuous and scalable strategy to produce mesoporous silica nanoshells, and the proposed in situ functionalization mechanism may pave the way to flexible catalysts for a diverse range of reactions.
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