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| A novel solvent-assisted route has been explored to uniformly coat polystyrene (PS) colloids with silver and prepare the corresponding hollow spheres. The silver nanocrystals are synthesized directly in the surface layer of the PS colloids swelled by acetone, and the surface modification of the PS core is unnecessary. A seeding growth technique using continuous drop addition of 10% HCHO solution is developed to grow the silver nanocrystals. After removing the PS core, the hollow silver spheres are obtained. The coverage, thickness, and roughness of the shell can be effectively modified by varying the amount of acetone and HCHO, and the as-prepared composite spheres can crystallize directly into long-range ordered structure. Our coating route is facile and versatile, and can be extended to coat PS colloids with other metal and prepare the corresponding hollow metal spheres. |
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| Keywords:solvent-assisted route, coating |
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