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Synthesis of Polystyrene Particles with Precisely Controlled Degree of Concaveness
Shape is an essential property of polymeric particles. Herein, we propose a simple method to synthesize polymeric particles with a well-controlled concave shape. Our method takes advantage of the powerful seeded emulsion polymerization strategy with the well-known principle of “like dissolves like”...
Autores principales: | , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
MDPI
2018
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6415454/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30966493 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/polym10040458 |
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author | Jing, Wenhua Du, Sinan Zhang, Zexin |
author_facet | Jing, Wenhua Du, Sinan Zhang, Zexin |
author_sort | Jing, Wenhua |
collection | PubMed |
description | Shape is an essential property of polymeric particles. Herein, we propose a simple method to synthesize polymeric particles with a well-controlled concave shape. Our method takes advantage of the powerful seeded emulsion polymerization strategy with the well-known principle of “like dissolves like” in solvent chemistry. We first prepared polystyrene (PS) particles with a single dimple by seeded emulsion polymerization. Then the dimpled PS particles were dispersed in a dimethylformamide (DMF) and water mixture. Consequently, the non-crosslinked polymer chains inside the particle were dissolved by DMF, a good solvent for PS, and the PS chains migrated out of the particle, causing buckling of the dimple and enlargement of the concave. By systematic change of the fraction of DMF in the solvent mixture, we changed the amount of the dissolved PS chains, and achieved polymeric particles with precisely tuned degree of concaveness. These concave particles were found to readily self-assemble, driven by polymer-induced depletion interaction. The concave PS particles reported here provide potential building blocks for self-assembled polymeric materials, and new model systems for condensed matter research. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-6415454 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2018 |
publisher | MDPI |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-64154542019-04-02 Synthesis of Polystyrene Particles with Precisely Controlled Degree of Concaveness Jing, Wenhua Du, Sinan Zhang, Zexin Polymers (Basel) Article Shape is an essential property of polymeric particles. Herein, we propose a simple method to synthesize polymeric particles with a well-controlled concave shape. Our method takes advantage of the powerful seeded emulsion polymerization strategy with the well-known principle of “like dissolves like” in solvent chemistry. We first prepared polystyrene (PS) particles with a single dimple by seeded emulsion polymerization. Then the dimpled PS particles were dispersed in a dimethylformamide (DMF) and water mixture. Consequently, the non-crosslinked polymer chains inside the particle were dissolved by DMF, a good solvent for PS, and the PS chains migrated out of the particle, causing buckling of the dimple and enlargement of the concave. By systematic change of the fraction of DMF in the solvent mixture, we changed the amount of the dissolved PS chains, and achieved polymeric particles with precisely tuned degree of concaveness. These concave particles were found to readily self-assemble, driven by polymer-induced depletion interaction. The concave PS particles reported here provide potential building blocks for self-assembled polymeric materials, and new model systems for condensed matter research. MDPI 2018-04-21 /pmc/articles/PMC6415454/ /pubmed/30966493 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/polym10040458 Text en © 2018 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). |
spellingShingle | Article Jing, Wenhua Du, Sinan Zhang, Zexin Synthesis of Polystyrene Particles with Precisely Controlled Degree of Concaveness |
title | Synthesis of Polystyrene Particles with Precisely Controlled Degree of Concaveness |
title_full | Synthesis of Polystyrene Particles with Precisely Controlled Degree of Concaveness |
title_fullStr | Synthesis of Polystyrene Particles with Precisely Controlled Degree of Concaveness |
title_full_unstemmed | Synthesis of Polystyrene Particles with Precisely Controlled Degree of Concaveness |
title_short | Synthesis of Polystyrene Particles with Precisely Controlled Degree of Concaveness |
title_sort | synthesis of polystyrene particles with precisely controlled degree of concaveness |
topic | Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6415454/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30966493 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/polym10040458 |
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