Multilayered titania, silica, and Laponite nanoparticle coatings on polystyrene colloidal templates and resulting inorganic hollow spheres

Abstract

The applicability of the layer-by-layer (LbL) technique for the formation of a range of polymer-core inorganic-shell particles and inorganic hollow spheres is demonstrated. Titanium dioxide, silica, and Laponite nanoparticles were used as the inorganic building blocks for multilayer formation on polystyrene (PS) sphere templates. Composite organic-inorganic particles were formed by the controlled assembly of the preformed nanoparticles in alternation with oppositely charged polyelectrolytes onto PS microspheres. The influence of nanoparticles type, shape (spherical to sheetlike), and size (3-100 nm), and the diameter of the PS sphere templates (210-640 nm) on the formation of multilayer shel..