Fabrication of non-collapsed hollow polymeric nanoparticles with shell thickness in the order of ten nanometres and anti-reflection coatings

The non-collapsed hollow polymeric nanoparticles with shell thicknesses in the order of 10 nm are prepared by interfacially confined reversible addition fragmentation transfer (RAFT) miniemulsion polymerization. The void fraction and average diameter of the hollow polymeric nanoparticles could be largely tuned up to 0.58 and from 68 nm to 180 nm, respectively. The non-collapsed hollow polymeric nanoparticles could be a building block for nanoporous materials, which hold promise in many fields such as anti-reflection coatings, ultra-thermal insulation materials, catalysis and sensors.