Uniform Fe3O4–PANi/PS composite spheres with conductive and magnetic properties and their hollow spheres

Core–shell multifunctional composite spheres consisting of Fe3O4–polyaniline (PANi) shell and polystyrene (PS) core were fabricated using core–shell-structured sulfonated PS spheres (with uniform diameter of 250 nm) as templates. PANi was doped in situ by sulfonic acid resulting the composite spheres are well conductive. Dissolved with solvent, PS cores were removed from the core–shell composite spheres and hollow Fe3O4–PANi spheres were obtained. Removing the PANi and PS components by calcinations produced hollow Fe3O4 spheres. The cavity size of the hollow spheres was uniformly approximate to 190 nm and the shell thickness was 30 nm. The cavity size and the shell thickness can be synchronously controlled by varying the sulfonation time of the PS templates. The shell thickness in size range was of 20–86 nm when the sulfonation time was changed from 1 to 4 h. These resulting spheres could be arranged in order by self-assembly of the templates. Both the Fe3O4–PANi/PS composite spheres and the hollow Fe3O4 spheres exhibit a super-paramagnetic behavior. Scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, and X-ray powder scattering were used to characterize these as-prepared spheres.