The mechanism of the formation of multihollow polymer spheres through sulfonated polystyrene particles.

Multihollow poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) particles were successfully fabricated simply by gamma-ray radiating emulsions consisting of MMA monomers, sulfonated polystyrene (SP) particles, and water. The mechanism on the formation of the holes was studied in detail. It was found that there were two routes to achieve two different multihollow structures dependent on the initial location of SP particles before emulsification. If SP particles first located in the water phase, cage-like hollow PMMA particles were obtained through the formation of a Pickering emulsion. Otherwise, if SP particles first located in the oil (MMA) phase, a different multihollow structure would be produced via the formation of a multiple emulsion. This work provides a simple method to fabricate two different structured multihollow particles using the same conditions.