Fabrications And Applications Of Organic/Inorganic Nanocomposite Microspheres

Homogenous materials, including organic and inorganic materials have their inherent limitations, such as low resistantce to corrosion of metals, poor toughness of inorganic nonmetals, and so on. In recent years, organic/inorganic nanocomposite microspheres have garnered tremendous attractions and researches in such background. In this field, how to construct organic/inorganic nanocomposite microspheres is the principle issue. In this dissertation, the thesis set out from the construction of nanocomposite microspheres, synthesize a series of multifunctional organic/inorganic nanocomposite microspheres via different methods, and investigate their applications for oil water separation and photocatalysis, respectively. The whole contents are listed as follows:1. Controlled synthesis of polystyrene microspheres. A series of polystyrene microspheres were synthesized by a soap-free emulsion polymerization method in this thesis. Polystyrene microspheres with diameter ranging from 1 ?m to 2 ?m were synthesized by changing the polymerization conditions. Further characterizations confirmed their surface smooth, surface potential negative, and particle size uniform.2. Preparation of polystyrene microspheres/inorganic nanoparticles composite microspheres. Inorganic nanoparticles, including Au, Ag, Fe3O4 nanoparticles, were successful patched on polystyrene microspheres by an electrostatic adsorption method. In this part, inorganic nanoparticles with their surface potential positive were firstly prepared and then mixed them with negative-charged polystyrene microspheres in solution, leading to adsorption by electrostatic attraction. Variable loading amount of nanoparticles were achieved by changing the addition amount of nanoparticle, and different size of microspheres were prepared by changing the size of microspheres.3. Preparation of asymmetric polymer microspheres/inorganic nanoparticles composite microspheres and their applications for oil water separation. Electrostatic adsorption method was adopted to achieve the loading of functional nanoparticles, including Au, Ag and Fe3O4 nanoparticles, on asymmetric polymer microspheres. Asymmetric polymer microspheres with their convex surface negative-charged were first prepared, and then mixed with inorganic nanoparticles in solution, leading to their electrostatic adsorption. Composites with different loading amount of inorganic nanoparticle were also achieved. Further researches confirmed that composite microspheres can be used for rapid oil water separation,owing to the amphiphilicity, unique crescent moon shaped geometry and magnetic response.4. In situ fabrication and photocatalytic properties of porous carbon sphere/InOOH nanocomposite microspheres. In this part, visible-light-response porous carbon sphere/InOOH nanocomposite microspheres were in situ synthesized through a two-step hydrothermal process, a possible in-situ formation process was proposed. By characterization and test, the composites had a light absorption to about 600 nm, and 90% of methylene blue was removed after reacting for 6 h under visible light irradiation. The possible photocatalytic mechanism was proposed based on such results.