Fabrication of Hollow Micro-particles with Nonspherical Shapes by Surface Sol-gel Reaction

We demonstrate the sol-gel coating technique of colloidal clusters for producing hollow micro-particles with complex morphologies. Cross-linked amidine polystyrene (PS) microspheres were synthesized by emulsifier-free emulsion copolymerization of styrene and divinylbenzene. The amidine PS particles were self-organized inside toluene-inwater emulsion droplets to produce large quantities of colloidally stable clusters. These clusters were coated with thin silica shell by sol-gel reaction of tetraethylorthosilicate (TEOS) and ammonia, and the organic polystyrene cores were removed by calcination at high temperature to generate nonspherical hollow micro-particles with complex morphologies. This process can be used to prepare hollow particles with shapes such as doublets, tetrahedra, icosahedra, and others.