Mesoporous Block Copolymer Nanoparticles with Tailored Structures by Hydrogen‐Bonding‐Assisted Self‐Assembly

Abstract

A simple, yet robust route to prepare polymer nanoparticles with tunable internal structures through supramolecular assembly within emulsion droplets is presented. Nanoparticles with various internal morphologies, including dispersed spheres, dispersed spirals, stacked toroids, and concentric lamellae, are obtained due to the 3D confinement and variation of hydrogen-bonding agent. This method also allows us to form mesoporous particles through further disassembly of the supramoleclar assemblies by rupturing the hydrogen bonding.

Additives Induced Structural Transformation of ABC Triblock Copolymer Particles

“…In our previous studies, we have proved that PDP significantly influenced the structure of the PS-b-P4VP dBCP particles. 11,50 Here we show that this facile strategy can also be applied to the ABC tBCPs system. The morphological evolution of the particle as the increase of PDP content (x) is shown in Figure 1.…”

Block copolymer–nanoparticle composites: Structure, functional properties, and processing

“…However, the incorporation of PS-modified gold NPs in the PS domains of cylindrical structures formed by PI-PS-PI BCP (having different architecture) was not thermodynamically favorable since the NP incorporation was associated with a significant [74,104].…”

“…Certain additives can interact selectively with one of the blocks of a BCP and change its conformation from flexible to rigid [74,[104][105][106][107][108]. For example, 3-n-pentadecyl phenol (PDP) (with PDP/4VP mole ratio in the range 1-3) changed the conformation of poly(4-vinyl pyridine) (P4VP) from coil (flexible) to rigid as PDP hydrogen bonded with P4VP [74].…”

Fabrication of porous polymer microspheres by tuning amphiphilicity of the polymer and emulsion–solvent evaporation processing

“…Compared with nonporous ones, porous microspheres possess excellent permeability, relatively low density and high surface area, which are promising in the fields of gas storage, drug storage and delivery, catalysis, solid phase organic and peptide synthesis, and ion-exchange [1][2][3][4][5][6][7]. Many approaches for the fabrication of porous microspheres have been developed, including seeding emulsion, suspension or dispersion polymerization, internal phase-separation approach and microfluidics assisted route [8][9][10][11][12]. Porous polymer spheres with various structures at different scales can be generated by these methods.…”