Catecholamine-Induced Electroless Metallization of Silver on Silica@Polymer Hybrid Nanospheres and Their Catalytic Applications

Abstract

Narrowly dispersed raspberry-like SiO2@poly(dopamine acrylamide-co-methacrylic acid-co-ethylene glycol dimethacrylate)/Ag (or SiO2@PDA/Ag) composite nanospheres were synthesized via a combination of sol–gel reaction, distillation-precipitation polymerization, reactive ester-amine reaction, and electroless metallization. In this approach, SiO2@poly(pentafluorophenyl acrylate-co-methacrylic acid-co-ethylene glycol dimethacrylate) (or SiO2@PPFA) core–shell nanospheres were first prepared by distillation-precipitation polymerization, using the SiO2-3-(trimethoxysilyl)propyl methacrylate (SiO2-MPS) nanospheres from sol–gel reaction as seeds. The reactive pentafluorophenyl (PFP) ester moieties on SiO2@PPFA nanospheres can readily react with dopamine hydrochloride to form amide linkages with no side reaction under a mild condition. The catecholamine moieties in the resulting SiO2@PDA nanospheres were utilized for simultaneous reduction of Ag+ ions and coordinative binding of the metal nanoparticles. The SiO2-MPS...