Formation of dual-responsive polystyrene/polyaniline microspheres with sea urchin-like and core-shell morphologies

In the present work, a simple and effective approach has been employed to fabricate the polystyrene/polyaniline (PS/PANI) composite microspheres with various morphologies. PS/PANI composite microspheres exhibiting different structures such as sea-urchin like, core-shell structure, have been synthesized by seeded emulsion polymerization with polystyrene microspheres as seeds. In particular, the sea urchin-like PS/PANI composite microspheres, with radial array nanofibers on the surface, have demonstrated the switchable wettability between superhydrophilicity (0°) and superhydrophobicity (152°) under the response of either electrical potential or pH. This intelligible approach can produce sea urchin-like PS/PANI composite microspheres in bulk. The growth mechanism of sea urchin-like PS/PANI composite microspheres has also been elucidated. Following the dissolution of the PS template, the sea urchin-like polyaniline (PANI) hollow microspheres are obtained.