In this paper, a general template synthesis approach is proposed to prepare composite hollow particles using quaternized polystyrene hollow particles. The crosslinked gel hollow templates are robust sufficiently to preserve their spherical contour during template synthesis. The gel shell with positively charged functional groups is infiltrative, and then a diversity of species can be loaded into the gel by electrostatic interaction. The grown materials are homogeneously distributed throughout the whole shell forming composite shells. The generality of the method is proved by extensive growth of the representative materials including metal Au nanoparticles, tungstenic acid and silica. The hollow particles with mesoporous shells are derived by further calcination to remove polymer templates, meanwhile composition of the shell can be transformed for example WC and C from H2WO4/quaternized polystyrene composite. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.