Facile Preparation of Raspberry-Like Superhydrophobic\nPolystyrene Particles via Seeded Dispersion Polymerization

Abstract

A simple\nand facile approach was developed to fabricate raspberry-like or snowman-like\nparticles via seeded dispersion polymerization by just changing the\nratio of second monomer styrene (St) to seeds in which poly­(styrene-co-hydrolyzed-methacryloxypropyltrimethoxysilane)\n[P­(St-co-MPS)] latex was used as seeds with hydrolyzed-MPS as a cross-linking\nagent. The morphologies of final products were confirmed by field-emission\nscanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy.\nInterestingly, the seed part of snowman-like particles showed raspberry-like\nwith adsorbing quantities of PS particles while the other part smooth.\nThe formation mechanism of the raspberry-like particles was also discussed.\nThe superhydrophobic surface with both the static contact angle of\n158° and high adhesion to water could be achieved by the hydrophobization\nof the particulate film with octadecyltrimethoxysilane that was formed\nfrom the raspberry-like particles decorated by a thin layer of silica\nnanoparticles. Further, through encapsulating Ag nanoparticles within\nthe surface, the obtained raspberry-like PS/Ag/SiO₂ nanocomposite\nparticles exhibited excellent antibacterial property simultaneously.