Uniform Concave Polystyrene-Carbon Core-Shell Nanospheres by a Swelling Induced Buckling Process

作者：Liu, Deyu; Peng, Xinxing; Wu, Binghui; Zheng, Xueyun; Chuong, Tracy T.; Li, Jialuo; Sun, Shigang^*; Stuckyt, Galen D.

来源：Journal of the American Chemical Society, 2015, 137(31): 9772-9775.

DOI：10.1021/jacs.5b05027

• HOLLOW PARTICLES
• COLLOIDAL PARTICLES
• NANOPARTICLE ARRAYS
• MICROPARTICLES
• POLYMERIZATION
• MICROCAPSULES
• INTERFACE
• ALCOHOLS
• EMULSION
• SPHERES

We have developed a facile procedure that can create asymmetrical building blocks by uniformly deforming nanospheres into C-infinity nu symmetry at low cost and high quality. Concave polystyrene@carbon (PS@C) core-shell nanospheres were produced by a very simple microwave-assisted alcohol thermal treatment of spherical PS@C nanoparticles. The dimensions and ratio of the concave part can be precisely controlled by temperature and solvents. The concavity is created by varying the alcohol-thermal treatment to tune the swelling properties that lead to the mechanical deformation of the PS@C core-shell structure. The driving force is attributed to the significant volume increase that occurs upon polystyrene core swelling with the incorporation of solvent. We propose a mechanism adapted from published models for the depression of soft capsules. An extrapolation from this model predicts that the rigid shell is used to generate a cavity in the unbuckled shell, which is experimentally confirmed. This swelling and deformation route is flexible and should be applicable to other polymeric nanoparticles to produce asymmetrical nanoparticles.

• 出版日期2015-8-12
• 单位厦门大学