Composite polymer nanoarchitectures from a one-pot hydrothermal route

Exploitation of facile and versatile synthetic approaches to polymeric nanoarchitectures is of great interest in polymer science and engineering. Herein, we show that a simple hydrothermal route using double-solvents as reaction media has the ability to generate polymer nanospheres with tunable morphologies and components. In this one-pot approach, condensation polymerization of a resol precursor and radical polymerization of styrene are allowed to occur simultaneously under hydrothermal treatment. The synergistic self-organization of phenol-formaldehyde crosslinked networks and polystyrene chains leads to the formation of well-defined hollow nanospheres with adjustable shell thickness or even Janus particles comprising a solid hemisphere and a hollow hemisphere. Furthermore, control over the composition of the hollow polymer nanospheres can be easily achieved by introducing a third monomer into the hydrothermal system.