Hairy, Semi-shaved, and Fully Shaved Hollow Nanospheres from Polyisoprene-block-poly(2-cinnamoylethyl methacrylate)

A polyisoprene- block -poly(2-cinnamoylethyl methacrylate) (PI- b -PCEMA) sample formed vesicles in THF/hexanes with a THF volume fraction of 20%. In such vesicles, PCEMA made up the essentially-solvent-free spherical shell and the PI chains stretched into the solution phase from both the inner and outer PCEMA surfaces. Hairy hollow nanospheres were prepared by photo-cross-linking the PCEMA shell. Treating the cross-linked vesicles with ozone for a short period selectively degraded the outer PI chains to yield semi-shaved hollow nanospheres. Fully shaved hollow nanospheres were prepared by degrading both the inner and outer PI chains using long ozonolysis times. Due to the poor solubility of the fully shaved hollow nanospheres in common organic solvents, they may be useful as macroporous resins in chemical separations.