Synthesis of microspheres with microphase‐separated shells

Abstract

Novel structural microspheres of the Janus type, with microphase-separated polystyrene (PS) and poly(tert-butyl methacrylate) (PBMA) shells and crosslinked poly(2-vinyl pyridine) (PVP) cores, were synthesized with the crosslinking of PVP spherical domains in poly(styrene-block-2-vinyl pyridine-block-tert-butyl methacrylate) ABC triblock terpolymer film with PS/PBMA lamellae-PVP spherical structures. For the formation of lamellae-sphere structures, toluene, which was a selective solvent for the ABC triblock terpolymer, was used. With the crosslinking of PVP spheres in the microphase-separated film with 1,4-diiodobutane gas, the microphase structure of the terpolymer was fixed, and microspheres composed of microphase-separated PS and PBMA shells and P2VP cores were obtained. The size distribution of the purified microspheres was narrow. The characteristics of the microspheres and their aggregation behaviors in selective solvents were investigated by transmission electron microscopy and light scattering methods.

Smart Organic/Inorganic Hybrid Nanoobjects with Controlled Shapes by Self-Assembly of Gelable Block Copolymers

“…One is to directly fix the specific domains of the preformed assembly based on the block copolymers with a cross-linkable functional block, which mostly produces pure organic nanomaterials. [10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21] The other is to use the block copolymers as structure-directing agents for the metal oxide precursors to prepare organic/ inorganic nanohybrids, where the suitable block copolymers were limited strictly. 4,[22][23][24][25][26][27] By the latter approach, dispersible individual nanoobjects may also be prepared.…”

Multi‐Compartment Unimolecular Micelles from (ABC)n Multi‐Arm Star Triblock Terpolymers

“…The solution properties of ABC triblock terpolymers have recently attracted much attention because of the novel nanostructured self-assemblies formed in selective media. [13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25] Particular emphasis has been given to the so-called multi-compartment micelles [26,27] comprising more than two hydrophobic non-centrosymmetric compartments [28][29][30][31] or core-shell-corona centrosymmetric structures. [32][33][34][35] The present work aims to combine the linear ABC triblock terpolymer structure with the star architecture (Scheme 1).…”

Self‐Assembly of Multiblock Copolymers

“…The first polymer-based JNPs were realized via lamella bulk morphologies of ABC triblock terpolymers. [113,114] Exemplified on PS-b-PB-b-PMMA and the lamella-sphere (ls) morphology (PS-lamella/PB-sphere/PMMA-lamella) Janus nanospheres (JNSs) were obtained by cross-linking the PB domain and redispersion in THF. [114] As amphiphilic colloids, JNSs show significant affinity towards interfaces.…”