A green approach for tunable fluorescent and superhydrophobic monodisperse polysilsesquioxane spheres

Dongqiao Zhang; Jiemin Yi; Bangchao Zhong; Wenshi Ma; Xiaohong Peng; Dongjie Yang

doi:10.1016/j.jcis.2020.06.021

A green approach for tunable fluorescent and superhydrophobic monodisperse polysilsesquioxane spheres

J Colloid Interface Sci. 2020 Oct 15:578:484-490. doi: 10.1016/j.jcis.2020.06.021. Epub 2020 Jun 6.

Authors

Dongqiao Zhang¹, Jiemin Yi², Bangchao Zhong³, Wenshi Ma², Xiaohong Peng⁴, Dongjie Yang⁵

Affiliations

¹ School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, South China University of Technology, 381 Wushan Road, Guangzhou, Guangdong 510640, People's Republic of China; School of Material Science and Engineering, South China University of Technology, 381 Wushan Road, Guangzhou, Guangdong 510640, People's Republic of China.
² School of Material Science and Engineering, South China University of Technology, 381 Wushan Road, Guangzhou, Guangdong 510640, People's Republic of China.
³ Chongqing Key Laboratory of Green Synthesis and Applications, College of Chemistry, Chongqing Normal University, Chongqing 401331, People's Republic of China.
⁴ School of Material Science and Engineering, South China University of Technology, 381 Wushan Road, Guangzhou, Guangdong 510640, People's Republic of China. Electronic address: pxhpf@scut.edu.cn.
⁵ School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, South China University of Technology, 381 Wushan Road, Guangzhou, Guangdong 510640, People's Republic of China. Electronic address: cedjyang@scut.edu.cn.

PMID: 32535429
DOI: 10.1016/j.jcis.2020.06.021

Abstract

Hypothesis: Typically, calcination at high temperature could bring fluorescence to hybrid silica spheres prepared with 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane and tetraethylorthosilicate, but they tended to be hydrophilic. Further extra modification is required to gain superhydrophobicity, which might probably block the fluorescence. Short side organic chains are very thermostable at high temperature. Therefore, it might be possible to produce superhydrophobic and fluorescent hybrid silica spheres through the co-condensation of organosilanes with short side organic chains and calcination at high temperature.

Experiments: Methyltrimethoxysilane (MTMS) and vinyltrimethoxysilane (VTMS) were co-condensed to prepare polysilsesquioxane (PSQ) spheres, which were subsequently calcinated at high temperature. The impact of MTMS/VTMS ratio on the chemical structures, fluorescence and wettability was investigated, and the applications of PSQ spheres were expanded.

Findings: The PSQ spheres with the ratio of MTMS/VTMS as 3/1 and 2/2 exhibited strong fluorescence, and the calcination did not destroy the superhydrophobicity for the remaining of abundant methyl, vinyl, or ethyl groups. Our study provides an extremely green, simple and effective approach to prepare thermostable, fluorescent and superhydrophobic monodisperse silica spheres without using rare earth element, gold, conjugated polymer, phorsphore, fluoride chemical or organic solvent.

Keywords: Fluorescent; Green approach; Hybrid silica; Polysilsesquioxane sphere; Superhydrophobic; Thermostable.