Facile synthesis of hollow polymer microspheres with movable cores with the aid of hydrogen-bonding interaction

Poly(divinylbenzene-co-acrylic acid) (poly(DVB-co-AA)) hollow microspheres with movable poly(DVB-co-AA) cores were prepared by a facile route. In this approach, poly(DVB-co-AA) microspheres were first used as templates to synthesize poly(DVB-co-AA)@PAA core-shell particles with a non-crosslinked PAA shell by distillation precipitation polymerization in acetonitrile. In situ polymerization to prepare poly(DVB-co-AA)@PAA@poly(DVB-co-AA) trilayer microspheres was then developed, in which the hydrogen-bonding interaction between the carboxylic acid groups played a key role as the driving force for the formation of monodisperse trilayer structure polymer microspheres. After removal of the non-crosslinked poly(acrylic acid) (PAA) midlayer of the poly(DVB-co-AA)@PAA@poly(DVB-co-AA) microspheres in ethanol under basic conditions, poly(DVB-co-AA) hollow microspheres with movable poly(DVB-co-AA) cores were obtained. Functional poly(DVB-co-AA) cores could be released successfully when the hollow structure was destroyed. The resultant core-shell, trilayer polymer microspheres and hollow polymer microspheres with movable cores were characterized by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), dynamic laser scattering (DLS), and Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectra.