Abstract
The aim of this study is to highlight the use of polystyrene (PS) latexes stabilized with block copolymers as a hard template in the production of metal oxide hollow spheres. PS latexes produced by dispersion polymerization by stabilizing with tertiary amine methacrylate-based diblock copolymer were used as a hard template in the preparation of nickel manganese oxide (NiMn2O4) hollow spheres and cobalt iron oxide (CoFe2O4) bowl-like structures. Thanks to the diblock copolymer stabilizer with tertiary amine functional groups on the PS surface, precursor salts of CoFe2O4 and NiMn2O4 were first homogeneously deposited on the surface of PS latexes with a controlled precipitation technique. Then, metal oxide hollow spheres and bowl-like structures were produced by calcination. XRD results showed that CoFe2O4 and NiMn2O4 structures were successfully obtained after calcination. The thermogravimetric analysis results showed that the CoFe2O4 and NiMn2O4 contents of the hybrid PS spheres were in the range of 26.0-28.6 wt%. SEM images showed that the inorganic-polymer spheres fused with each other after calcination to form larger magnetic CoFe2O4 bowl-like structures. SEM images also indicated successful production of highly rough NiMn2O4 hollow spheres with nanosheets on the surface.
Highlights
Nano and micro-sized metal oxides, especially used in catalysis applications, are very popular structures in material science
These interactions are more stronger in emulsion polymerization, but some of these block copolymers remain on the surfaces of latex after their synthesis via dispersion polymerization as well [29, 33, 34]
The PS spheres produced in different diameters by dispersion polymerization using different diblock copolymers as stabilizers were used in the production of NiMn2O4 hollow spheres and CoFe2O4 bowl-like structures
Summary
Nano and micro-sized metal oxides, especially used in catalysis applications, are very popular structures in material science. The magnetic nature of these materials provides them with significant advantages, such as being able to be directed in the magnetic field, as well as the reduction of repetitive use and physical losses, especially in catalysis and adsorption applications [7,8,9]. It is possible to produce uniform and repeatable hollow spheres and bowl-like structures [1,2,3,4]. Among these techniques, the use of hard templates (polymer, silica and carbon) is conceptually the simplest [1, 2]. Polystyrene (PS), PS derivatives, poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) and formaldehyde resins are often used as polymeric hard templates due to their easy and low cost [1, 2]
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