Synthesis of nanostructured polymer materials with different morphologies: Nanoporous ordered networks and hollow capsules

Nanostructured polymer materials with interesting morphological variation, which include three dimensionally interconnected uniform nanoporous network arrays (volume- and surface-templated ordered arrays) and hollow core spheres were synthesized by inducing different polymerization process of phenol and formaldehyde as a precursor over silica templates (ordered silica colloidal crystals or individual silica particles). The pore sizes of the resulting nanostructured polymer materials can be easily controlled by monitoring the sizes of silica spheres, while their morphologies were modulated by controlling the initiation sites of the acid-catalyzed condensation reaction of the same polymer precursor and by modifying silica templates.