Facile and Efficient Synthesis of Functional Hollow Polymer Particles with a Tunable Void Size and Shell Thickness

In this paper, functional hollow polymer particles (HPPs) were deliberately designed and prepared by the templating method using poly(maleic anhydride-co-styrene) (PMS) microspheres as templates via self-stabilized precipitation polymerization. First, PMS@PMD and PMS@PDMG core–shell particles were prepared by a one-pot method through the copolymerization of divinylbenzene/maleic anhydride and divinylbenzene/maleic anhydride/glycidyl methacrylate in the presence of PMS templates, respectively. Then, the corresponding PDM and PDMG HPPs were obtained by acetone etching. The effects of solvent composition, monomer concentration, and core–shell ratio on the size and morphology of the resultant HPPs were systematically investigated. By varying the core–shell ratios and monomer concentrations, monodisperse PMS@PDM and PMS@PDMG core–shell particles were successfully obtained at high yield in solvent mixtures of n-heptane/isoamyl acetate. This facile, universal, and high-yield strategy can be easily scaled up to the kilogram scale. More importantly, the highly reactive anhydride and epoxy groups in the shell layer of these HPPs provide versatile platforms for further functionalization.