Preparation of Sodium Alginate/POSS Organic-Inorganic Hybrid Hollow Microcapsules and Their Properties

A water-soluble cationic polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane (POSS) instead of the traditional calcium chloride coagulation bath was employed together with sodium alginate (SA) to prepare a series of hybrid organic and inorganic microcapsules (SA/POSS) via dropping method. The structure and properties of the obtained SA/POSS microcapsules were also characterized. It could be found from the results of FT-IR, XRD, SEM, TG and swelling experiment that a strong electrostatic interaction exist between POSS and SA. The introduction of POSS wea-kened the ordered arrangement of SA molecules, and SA/POSS organic-inorganic hybrid microcapsules presented amorphous structure. Speci-fically, the microcapsules possessed a compact outer wall and a hollow interior, with the structure gradually become looser from outside to inside. In addition, SA/POSS microcapsules show superior thermal stability to SA. The SA/POSS hollow microcapsules could reach swelling equilibrium in deionized water and HCl solution quickly, with the equilibrium swelling ratios of 17.2%-33.1% and 15.9%-20.3%, respectively, while they would break in PBS buffer and finally dissolved. © 2019, Materials Review Magazine. All right reserved.