Sulfonated polystyrene spheres as template for fabricating hollow compact silver spheres via silver–mirror reaction at low temperature

Abstract

Traditional silver-mirror reaction at low temperature has been explored to prepare a uniform, complete hollow silver sphere with controlled thickness, using sulfonated polystyrene (PS) spheres as template. This robust strategy for fabricating hollow compact silver spheres, avoiding complex chemical or physical process, overcomes the difficulties for preparation of hollow metal spheres by removing the organic core using an appropriate solvent only. Such hollow silver spheres are potential candidates for application in plasmonic and in other energy fields.