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Polymerizable Molecular Silsesquioxane Cage Armored Hybrid Microcapsules with In Situ Shell Functionalization
Yuxiu Xing1,2, Jun Peng1,2, Kai Xu3
1Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Organic Polymer Materials for Electronics, Guangzhou Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, P.O. Box 1122, Guangzhou, 510650, China.
Chemistry (Weinheim an Der Bergstrasse, Germany)
|January 11, 2016
Summary
Researchers developed novel hollow nanospheres using polymer-silsesquioxane hybrid microcapsules. These porous nanospheres show high surface area and excellent methylene blue adsorption capacity, offering potential for various applications.
Area of Science:
- Materials Science
- Nanotechnology
- Polymer Chemistry
Background:
- Core-shell polymer-silsesquioxane hybrid microcapsules offer unique properties for advanced material applications.
- Cage-like methacryloxypropyl silsesquioxanes (CMSQs) can act as effective emulsifiers in polymerization processes.
- Developing hollow nanostructures with controlled porosity is crucial for applications like adsorption and catalysis.
Purpose of the Study:
- To synthesize and characterize novel core-shell polymer-silsesquioxane hybrid microcapsules.
- To transform these microcapsules into well-defined hollow nanospheres with porous shells.
- To evaluate the adsorption properties, specifically methylene blue adsorption capacity, of the resulting hollow nanospheres.
Main Methods:
- Emulsion polymerization of styrene (St) using cage-like methacryloxypropyl silsesquioxanes (CMSQs) to form core-shell latex particles.
- Hollowing process involving the removal of the polystyrene (PS) core using an ethanol/cyclohexane solvent mixture.
- Characterization using Dynamic Light Scattering (DLS), Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM), High-Resolution TEM, and nitrogen adsorption-desorption analysis.
Main Results:
- Uniform core-shell latex particles were successfully synthesized.
- Well-defined hollow nanospheres with porous shells (pore size 2-3 nm) were obtained after core removal.
- The nanospheres exhibited high surface areas (up to 486 m²/g) and demonstrated a record methylene blue adsorption capacity (95.1 mg/g).
Conclusions:
- A facile one-step template-free method for preparing hollow microspheres with porous shells was established.
- The developed hollow nanospheres possess significant potential for applications requiring high adsorption capacity, such as pollutant removal.
- The presence of methacryloyl moieties on the nanospheres suggests further possibilities for functionalization and expanded applications.
