Facile preparation of raspberry-like mesoporous poly(styrene-co-divinylbenzene)/Ag composite particles for antibacterial superhydrophobic surfaces and liquid marbles

Due to their unique properties, raspberry-like colloidal particles (RCPs) have been widely used in various fields. However, a facile, scalable and robust approach of producing raspberry-like colloidal particles remains an ongoing challenge. Herein, raspberry-like mesoporous poly(styrene- co -divinylbenzene) (PSD) polymeric particles were fabricated by one-step dispersion polymerization in the solvent mixture of ethanol and toluene. The morphologies of obtained polymeric particles could be easily tuned from spherical to raspberry-like structure by changing the composition of the solvent mixtures. A rational mechanism for the formation of raspberry-like polymeric particles was also proposed according to the morphological evolution under different copolymerization conditions. With the assitance of the immonilized PVP layer, the raspberry-like PSD colloidal particles can be further functionalized by depositing Ag nanoparticles on the particle surface. The antibacterial activity of raspberry-like PSD/Ag composite particles against E. coli was up to 99.99%. In addition, raspberry-like PSD/Ag composites can be further utilized to construct antibacterial superhydrophobic surface and liquid marbles.