Preparation and Characterization of Prussian Blue Coated Polymeric Nanoparticles via Dispersion Polymerization Template

Herein, we report a novel method for the synthesis of Prussian blue/PB containing polymeric hybrid nanoparticles. This method employs poly(4-vinylpyridine)/P4VP stabilized polystyrene/PS nanoparticles as a template to define the position of Prussian blue product. In the first step, the templates of P4VP-stabilized polystyrene polymer nanoparticle were prepared by dispersion polymerization of styrene in methanol/water in the presence of macro-P4VP chain transfer agents. With the addition of sodium pentacyanoammineferroate(II) hydrate/[Fe(CN) 5 NH 3 ] 3− into dispersion, pyridyl moieties in P4VP in polymeric nanoparticles could react with [Fe(CN) 5 NH 3 ] 3− through a ligand exchange reaction. Subsequent metal coordination polymerization of Fe 3+ with ferrate confined within the surface of the nanoparticles led to the generation of monodispersed PB coated polymeric nanoparticles. The nanoparticles were characterized and confirmed by various modern techniques such as FT-IR, UV–Vis, TGA, XPS, TEM, SEM and AFM. The UV–Vis, FT-IR, TGA and XPS studies suggested Prussian blue was successfully coordinated with P4VP-PS polymers template according to our experimental design. The morphology studies indicated that spherical nanoparticles were obtained. In particular, the EDX mapping results clearly show that the iron element is evenly distributed on the nanoparticles. In addition, two parameters, including the amount of initiator and the amount of iron in the system, have important effects on the particle size and distribution. This experimental system we designed has great potential for the synthesis of metal containing polymeric nanoparticles with other compositions and morphologies, which offers many possibilities worthy of further exploration.