Facile Preparation of Hollow Microspheres via Self-assembly of Polyamines and Nanoparticles

an abstract by Jie Yu

Hollow-structured microspheres are notable for their diverse applications, such as tools for drug delivery, or use as microreactors or microsensors. At present, a variety of methods, such as layer-by-layer assembly, block copolymer self-association, and polyamine and nanoparticle self-assembly have been successfully employed to fabricate hollow spheres. However, layer-by-layer assembly sacrifices the solid core, and block copolymers cannot be feasibly synthesized. On the other hand, silica nanoparticle self-assembly around polymer/nanoparticle aggregates can produce hollow spheres easily. In this presentation, I will introduce a more flexible and facile self-assembly method for making hollow spheres, i.e., using nanoparticles other than silica to self-assemble around a pure polymer aggregate to successfully prepare hollow microspheres in water at near neutral pH and at room temperature. These nanoparticles include ZnO, SnO2, and TiO2 NPs. These hollow spheres have potential applications in encapsulation and use as sensors.