One-step hydrothermal synthesis of hollow ZnO microspheres with enhanced performance for polyacrylate

In this study, hollow ZnO microspheres were successfully synthesized by a one-step template-free hydrothermal synthetic route straightforwardly just for 30min at 90 degrees C. More importantly, hexamethylenetetramine and trisodium citrate played a significant role in the fabrication of hollow ZnO microspheres, and distilled water served as the main solvent without adding any organic solvent and surfactants. The architecture and morphology of as obtained ZnO microstrutures were estimateded by field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD) and Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET). With the morphological evolution apperceived in the time-dependent growth of hollow ZnO microspheres, a possible formation mechanism based on Ostward ripening inside-out was proposed. Then, polyacrylate/hollow ZnO composite latex was obtained by physical blending of hollow ZnO microspheres and polyacrylate emulsion. As expected, hollow ZnO micro spheres has a significant impact on water vapor permeability, water resistance and mechanical porperties. Among them, the water vapor permeability and water resistance was relatively increased by 71.18% and 38.42%, respectively.