Polymer-induced generation and characterization of electrophoretic properties of hollow TiOX nanospheres for electronic paper

Hollow TiOX nanospheres have been successfully prepared using hollow core–double shell latex particles (poly(styrene-co-methyl methacrylate-co-butyl acrylate-co-methacrylic acid) (abbreviated in poly(St-co-MMA-co-BA-co-MAA)) as template, which involves the deposition of inorganic coating on the surface of hollow core–shell latex particles and subsequent removal of the latex by calcinations in air or ammonia gas. Ti(OBu)4 was used as precursor for the preparation of hollow TiOX nanospheres. TEM of white hollow core–double shell polymers particles with an aperture of approximately 225 nm displays the perfect characteristic hollow nanospheres structure of primary core–double shell particles. The formation of TiOX was confirmed by XRD analysis and hollow structure of the particles was revealed by transmission electron microscopy (TEM). When the calcined temperature was at 800 °C, hollow TiO2 nanospheres were arranged regularly with the diameter range of 130–170 nm. The electrophoretic properties were characterized by JS94J micro-electrophoresis apparatus. The electrophoretic mobility of white TiO2 and black TiO hollow spheres in tetrachloroethylene were 1.09 × 10−5 and 3.12 × 10−5 cm2/V s, and the zeta potentials were 7.10 and 20.24 mV, respectively. The results show that white TiO2 particles and black TiO hollow nanoparticles are suitable as electrophoretic particles and possess the application potential in the future electrophoretic display.