Controlling morphology and particle size of hollow poly (styrene-divinylbenzene)‎ microspheres fabricated by template-based method

Abstract EN

Hollow poly(styrene–divinylbenzene) (P(S-DVB)) microspheres were fabricated via template-based method including synthesis of silica particles by sol-gel method, preparation of silica/P(S-DVB) particles by dispersion polymerization and chemical etching of silica cores by NaOH solution.

TEM, FTIR and TG analyses confirmed that the hollow P(S-DVB) microspheres were successfully obtained.

The morphology of hollow P(S-DVB) microspheres could be controlled by adjusting the amounts of DVB, AIBN and VTES, and the round-ball-like hollow P(S-DVB) microspheres were fabricated when the amount of DVB, AIBN and VTES was 30.0 wt%, 5.0 wt % and 30.0 vol% respectively.

Both the size of silica particles and amount of monomers were regarded as the two key factors to control the particle size of the round-ball-like hollow P(SDVB) microspheres