Polystyrene nanoparticles prepared by nanoprecipitation: A recyclable template for fabricating hollow silica

Polystyrene was synthesized and applied as a template for fabricating hollow silica nanoparticles. Organic solvent and water were used as a solvent and an anti-solvent, respectively, to produce the polystyrene nanoparticles via. nanoprecipitation technique. The influence of precipitation method (one-shot or drop), solvent for dissolution of polystyrene, and concentration of polystyrene or CTAB linker on the diameter of polystyrene nanoparticles was investigated. The hollow silica nanoparticles were fabricated using the as-made polystyrene nanoparticles as a template with the help of CTAB linker. Polystyrene was recovered by the extraction of [email protected]2 composite with the tetrahydrofuran solvent, and the recovered polystyrene was re-used to make the polystyrene nanoparticles as a template for fabricating hollow silica nanoparticles. Our study can be applied for other types of polymeric materials as long as those polymeric materials form nanoparticles via. nanoprecipitation technique. In comparison with the polystyrene hard template prepared by emulsion polymerization, the size of polystyrene nanoparticles produced by the nanoprecipitation technique can be well-tuned by changing the polystyrene and linker concentrations.