Synthesis of a Au/silica/polymer trilayer composite and the corresponding hollow polymer microsphere with a movable Au core

Gold/silica/poly(N,N'-methylenebisacrylamide) (Au/SiO2/polyMBAAm) trilayer composite materials were prepared by distillation precipitation polymerization of N,N'-methylenebisacrylamide (MBAAm) in the presence of Au/SiO2 particles as seeds, in which the seeds were prepared by a combination of gold-complexing and silane coupling agent with a further modified Stober method. The polymerization of MBAAm was performed in neat acetonitrile with 2,2'-azobisisobutyronitrile as an initiator to encapsulate the Au/SiO2 seeds driven by the hydrogen-bonding interaction between the hydroxyl group on the surface of the seeds and the amide unit of polyMBAAm without modification of the Au/SiO2 surface in the absence of any stabilizer or surfactant. Hollow polyMBAAm microspheres with movable Au cores were further developed by the selective removal of the middle silica layer with hydrofluoric acid. The resultant trilayer Au/SiO2/PolyMBAAm composite and hollow polyMBAAm microspheres with movable Au cores were characterized by transmission electron microscopy. The diffusion of chemicals across the polyMBAAm shell was investigated by a catalytic reduction of 4-nitrophenol to 4-aminophenol in the presence of sodium borohydride as a reductant.