Preparation of Hollow Nanochanneled-Silica Nanospheres by Sacrificial Copolymer Nanospheres and Surfactant Nanocylinders

초록

Novel monodisperse, well-defined hollow nanochanneled-silica nanospheres were prepared using copolymeric template. Positively-charged, monodisperse poly(styrene-co-butyl acrylate-co-[2-(methacryloxy)ethyl]trimethyl ammonium chloride) (PSBM) nanospheres with smooth surfaces and a very narrow size distribution were synthesized by surfactant-free emulsion copolymerization and freeze drying. These PSBM nanospheres were used as a sacrificial core material. The silica shell phase was deposited on the surface of the PSBM core template by using a charge-charge interaction between the negatively-charged silica precursors, associated with a surfactant compound and the positively-charged polymer nanospheres. The polymer core part and the structure-directing surfactant were selectively removed by thermal treatment, and hollow nanochannels in the silica shell phase was simultaneously induced in the solid rearrangement process at high temperature. The unique channel structure and the facile accessibility to the hollow interior space were carefully investigated by many characterization techniques.