Preparation of monodisperse polystyrene/silver composite microspheres and their catalytic properties

This article presents a facile method for the preparation of polystyrene/silver (PS/Ag) composite microspheres. In this approach, monodisperse PS spheres were synthesized via dispersion polymerization and modified by sulfonation to obtain sulfonated PS spheres with sulfonic acid groups on the surfaces, and then adsorbed Sn²⁺ ions by electrostatic interaction and used as templates. PS/Ag composite microspheres were prepared successively by addition of Ag(NH₃)₂]⁺ complex ions to the templates dispersion, adsorbing to the surfaces of templates, and then reduction of Ag(NH₃)₂]⁺ complex ions to Ag nanoparticles by sodium potassium tartrate. The results showed that monodisperse PS spheres with sulfonic acid groups on the surfaces were coated by an incomplete and nonuniform coverage of Ag nanoparticles in the absence of Sn²⁺ ions. In the presence of Sn²⁺ ions, however, complete and uniform Ag nanoparticles coatings were obtained on the entire PS sphere. And the deposition density and size of Ag nanoparticles can be controlled by Ag(NH₃)₂]⁺ concentration. The resulting PS/Ag composite microspheres were characterized by SEM, TEM, XRD, TGA, and UV-vis. Preliminary catalytical tests indicated these PS/Ag composite microspheres showed good catalytic properties.