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Facile fabrication of multihollow polymer microspheres via novel two-step assembly of P(St-co-nBA-co-AA) particles

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Abstract

A novel two-step assembly method was found and was used to fabricate special multihollow polymer microspheres. Firstly, monodisperse colloidal particles of poly(styrene-co-(n-butyl acrylate)-co-acrylic acid) (P(St-co-nBA-co-AA)) were synthesized by soap-free emulsion polymerization and the obtained emulsion was transferred to 1-octanol to form colloidosomes which were stabilized by Span 80 and the colloidal particles via assembling at the interface of water/oil. Secondly, the multihollow polymer microspheres were successfully fabricated by heat aggregation and fusion of the aforementioned colloidosomes and colloidal particles. The two-step assembly mechanism was revealed and explained based on the morphologies of multihollow polymer microspheres formed under different emulsifier amounts and sintering conditions.

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Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful for the financial support provided by National Natural Science Foundation of China (no. 51173146, 51433008), the Doctorate Foundation of Northwestern Polytechnical University (CX201515), and Basic Research Fund of Northwestern Polytechnical University (3102014JCQ01094, 3102014ZD).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Applied Physics and Chemistry in Space of Ministry of Education, School of Science, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Number 127, West Youyi Road, Xi’an, 710072, Shaanxi, China

    Chunmei Li, Jiaojun Tan, Yali Liu, Baoliang Zhang, Xinlong Fan & Qiuyu Zhang

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  1. Chunmei Li
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Correspondence to Qiuyu Zhang.

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Li, C., Tan, J., Liu, Y. et al. Facile fabrication of multihollow polymer microspheres via novel two-step assembly of P(St-co-nBA-co-AA) particles. Colloid Polym Sci 293, 993–1001 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00396-015-3501-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00396-015-3501-3

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