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

A simple and facile approach was developed to fabricate raspberry like or snowman like particles via seeded dispersion polymerization by just changing the ratio of second monomer styrene (St) to seeds in which poly(styrene-co-hydrolyzed-methacryloxypropyltrimethoxysilane) [P(St-co-MPS)] latex was used as seeds with hydrolyzed-MPS as a cross-linking agent. The morphologies of final products were confirmed by field-emission scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy. Interestingly, the seed part of snowman-like particles showed raspberry-like with adsorbing quantities of PS particles while the other part smooth The formation mechanism of the raspberry like particles was also discussed. The superhydrophobic surface with both the static contact angle of 158 and high adhesion to water could be achieved by the hydrophobization of the particulate film with octadecyltrimethoxysilane that was formed from the raspberry-like particles decorated by a thin layer of silica nanoparticles. Further, through encapsulating Ag nanoparticles within the surface, the obtained raspberry like PS/Ag/SiO2 nanocomposite particles exhibited excellent antibacterial property simultaneously.