Capillary force induced formation of monodisperse polystyrene/silica organic-inorganic hybrid hollow spheres

Wenguang Leng; Min Chen; Shuxue Zhou; Limin Wu

doi:10.1021/la102256t

Capillary force induced formation of monodisperse polystyrene/silica organic-inorganic hybrid hollow spheres

Langmuir. 2010 Sep 7;26(17):14271-5. doi: 10.1021/la102256t.

Authors

Wenguang Leng¹, Min Chen, Shuxue Zhou, Limin Wu

Affiliation

¹ Department of Materials Science and the Key Laboratory of Molecular Engineering of Polymers of MOE, the Advanced Coating Research Center of MOE, Fudan University, Shanghai 200433, PR China.

PMID: 20677744
DOI: 10.1021/la102256t

Abstract

This paper presents a "one-spot" procedure to fabricate polystyrene/silica (PS/SiO(2)) hybrid hollow spheres. In this approach, when poly(vinylpyrrolidone)-stabilized PS colloids were deposited by sol-gel derived silica layer under acidic medium, it was interesting to find that the PS/SiO(2) core-shell colloids gradually changed to hollow structure spontaneously in the same medium as reaction went on. The formation of this hollow structure should be attributed to the diffusion of PS macromolecular chains from core particles into the voids between silica nanoparticles driven by the strong capillary force.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Colloids / chemistry
Diffusion
Nanoparticles / chemistry
Particle Size
Polystyrenes / chemistry*
Silicon Dioxide / chemistry*
Surface Properties

Substances

Colloids
Polystyrenes
Silicon Dioxide