Porous metal oxide microspheres with varying pore sizes
AssigneesPresident and Fellows of Harvard College, BASF SE
InventorsRupa Hiremath Darji, James Newhouse, Vinothan N. Manoharan, Victoria Hwang, Anna B. Stephenson
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Abstract
Porous metal oxide microspheres are prepared via a process comprising forming a liquid solution or dispersion of polydisperse polymer nanoparticles and a metal oxide; forming liquid droplets from the solution or dispersion; drying the liquid droplets to provide polymer template microspheres comprising polymer nanospheres and metal oxide; and removing the polymer nanospheres from the template microspheres to provide the porous metal oxide microspheres. The porous microspheres exhibit saturated colors and are suitable as colorants for a variety of end-uses.
Claims20
Porous microspheres comprising a metal oxide, wherein the porous microspheres have:
- an average diameter of from about 0.5 μm to about 100 μm;
- and
- an average porosity of from about 0.10 to about 0.80;
- wherein the porous microspheres have two or more populations of pores each having an average pore diameter, wherein each population has a different average pore diameter, wherein the average pore diameters of each population are independently selected from about 50 nm to about 999 nm, and wherein each porous metal oxide microsphere comprises the two or more populations of pores formed throughout a continuous solid structure of the metal oxide.
A composition comprising:
- a substrate;
- and
- porous microspheres comprising a metal oxide, wherein the porous microspheres have:
- an average diameter of from about 0.5 μm to about 100 μm and
- an average porosity of from about 0.10 to about 0.80;
- wherein the porous microspheres have two or more populations of pores each having an average pore diameter, wherein each population has a different average pore diameter, wherein the average pore diameters of each population are independently selected from about 50 nm to about 999 nm, and wherein each porous metal oxide microsphere comprises the two or more populations of pores formed throughout a continuous solid structure of the metal oxide.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.