Preparation of polydivinylbenzene/Au core-shell beads

A novel core-shell material composed of closely packed gold shells on poly (divinylbenzene) (PDVB) cores was fabricated via the reduction of a gold complex. PDVB beads (2-5 μm) were synthesized by precipitation polymerization. The surface of the PDVB beads was modified by three different methods, viz. sulfonation, chloromethylation, and thiolation. The modification of the surface of the PDVB beads was designed to allow the facile attachment of the gold layer onto the PDVB cores. The gold seeding layer was initially formed on the modified PDVB cores by the chemical reduction of a gold-phenanthroline complex. The subsequent growing reactions of NH₂OH and HAuCl ₄ increased the gold coverage to more than 90%. The structure of the PDVB/Au core-shell material was characterized by SEM, XPS, and FT-IR.