A direct preparation of silica shell on polystyrene microspheres prepared by dispersion polymerization with polyvinylpyrrolidone

Synthesis of polystyrene–silica composite particles via one-step nanoparticle-stabilized emulsion polymerization

“…In the past several years, new chemical methods have been utilized to prepare organic-inorganic composite particles, including emulsion [18][19][20][21], dispersion [22][23][24][25][26][27], miniemulsion [28][29][30][31][32], and inversed emulsion polymerization [33]. The stabilizing effect is usually provided by surfactants, co-monomers, initiators, or cooperatively with nanoparticles.…”

Polyelectrolyte-assisted synthesis of polystyrene microspheres by dispersion polymerization and the subsequent formation of silica shell

“…Once such silica shell layer is fabricated on the polymer core, hollow silica spheres can be further prepared by removing the core polymer templates by high temperature calcination or selective dissolution using solvents. In order to increase the efficiency of the silica shell formation on the template microspheres, the template polymer microspheres are produced using basic co-monomer such as 1-vinylimidazole or 1-vinylcarbazole [22] or using basic stabilizer such as PVP [30]. In another pathway, neutral polymer templates are coated with PVP [28] or poly(allylamine hydrochloride) as a cationic polyelectrolyte [48], and the silica shell is subsequently formed by the Stöber method.…”

“…Very recently, we have explored a simple method to synthesize PS/silica core/shell microspheres by dispersion polymerization using PVP as a steric stabilizer [30]. Due to the existence of residual PVP molecules on the surface of PS particles, as-synthesized PS microspheres could be directly utilized as the template for the formation of silica shell by eliminating an additional PVP-coating process.…”

Preparation of organic/inorganic composites by deposition of silica onto shell layers of polystyrene (core)/poly[2-(N,N-dimethylamino)ethyl methacrylate] (shell) particles

“…In each case, an organic or inorganic polymerization becomes necessary if at least one of the starting moieties is a precursor. In previous studies on composite materials, introduction of nanoscaled inorganic components such as semiconductors and metal oxides into organic polymer matrices is commonly performed [2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11], because inorganic nano-materials can be prepared readily by a sol-gel process under mild conditions. Since silica is one of the most popular compounds among inorganic materials, several attempts have been made to prepare composites with a polymer core and a silica shell or vice versa.…”