Polystyrene-ZnO core-shell microspheres and hollow ZnO structures synthesized with the sulfonated polystyrene templates

Mono-sized sulfonated polystyrene (PS) microspheres were used as templates to prepare PS-zinc oxide (ZnO) core-shell microspheres. Two different hollow ZnO structures were obtained after removing the PS cores by solvent extraction or calcinations. However, we obtained rod-like ZnO by either using unsulfonated PS microspheres as templates or without any templates. Transmission electron microscope (TEM) and scanning electron microscope (SEM) images were used to characterize the structures and morphologies of all the samples. X-ray diffraction (XRD), electron diffraction (ED) and infrared (IR) spectra were, respectively, used to study the crystal structure and composition of samples, respectively.