We demonstrate a simple approach to prepare hairy polymer nanorods/nanofibres by exploiting the self-assembly behavior of block copolymers. The hairy nanofibres were prepared from an asymmetric polystyrene-block-poly(4-vinylpyridine) (PS-b-P4VP) block copolymer whose self-assembled morphology consisted of PS cylinders dispersed in P4VP matrix. The dissolution of the block copolymer in a P4VP selective solvent resulted in the isolation of individual PS cylinders wrapped with a shell consisting of covalently bound P4VP chains. The diameter of these hairy nanofibres was $80 nm, whereas the length was in the range of several hundred nanometers. We further show that such hairy nanofibres provide interesting possibilities for doing further chemistry on their surface. This, in principle, allows one to prepare a range of functional hybrid organic/inorganic nanofibres of diameter less than 100 nm using the hairy polymer nanofibres as template. The organic fraction of the nanofibres can then be further removed by thermal treatment to produce pure inorganic nano-objects.

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Role of poly(ɛ-caprolactone) (PCL) and its 3D-scaffolds in tissue engineering has already been established due to its ease of processing into long term degradable implants and approval from FDA. This...

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Hollow silica nanofibers and nanospheres were synthesized from functional hairy polymer nanofibers as sacrificial templates. The polymer nanofibers were isolated from a cylinder-forming polystyrene-block-poly(4-vinylpyridine) block copolymer using a selective-swelling approach.

Single‐step process for production of porous scaffold based on poly(pentadecanolide) (PPDL) is reported. The scaffold is produced via in situ porosity generation during ring‐opening polymerization (ROP) of the lactone pentadecanolide (PDL) in high internal phase emulsion (HIPE) using a water soluble enzyme (Lipase TL) as catalyst. The enzyme present in dispersed aqueous phase of HIPE effectively carries out ROP of monomer present in continuous oil phase. The polymerization occurs at the interface of oil and water in HIPE and complete monomer conversion is achieved in 96 h at 40 °C. Porous scaffold having interconnected pores is obtained as the final product and formation of PPDL is confirmed by spectroscopic and thermal analysis. The process thus developed is a single‐step process to produce porous scaffolds via ROP of a lactone that can be extended to see its efficacy using monomer‐soluble organometallic catalysts and monomers other than PDL including lactones, lactides, and cyclic carbonates.