Synthesis and electrokinetics of cationic spherical nanoparticles in salt-free non-polar media

Abstract

The electrokinetics of cationic sterically-stabilized diblock copolymer nanoparticles prepared in salt-free non-polar media depend on whether the charge is located in the stabilizer shell or in the nanoparticle core.

Time-resolved small-angle neutron scattering studies of the thermally-induced exchange of copolymer chains between spherical diblock copolymer nanoparticles prepared via polymerization-induced self-assembly

“…24,29,30 However, there are rather fewer reports of syntheses in non-polar media, yet they offer considerable potential. 21,25,28,[31][32][33][34] In principle, the RAFT-mediated PISA of methacrylic monomers enables the rational synthesis of diblock copolymer spheres, worms or vesicles by careful selection of the target block composition and copolymer concentration. 33 Although kinetically-trapped spheres are commonly observed, it is wellknown that spheres can evolve to form highly anisotropic worms during PISA under certain conditions.…”

Refractive index matched, nearly hard polymer colloids

“…Using PISA, it has been possible to synthesize diblock copolymer nano-objects in water [43], lower alcohols [44,45] and non-polar solvents [44]. Various polymers have been used to form the core-forming blocks of PISA-synthesized nano-objects in non-polar solvents, including poly(methyl acrylate) [46][47][48], poly(benzyl methacrylate) [41,[49][50][51][52][53][54][55][56], poly(3-phenylpropyl methacrylate) [57][58][59], poly(benzyl acrylate) [42], poly(n-2-(methacryloyloxy)ethyl pyrrolidone) [60], poly(phenyl acrylate) [61] and poly(2,2,2-trifluoroethyl methacrylate) [62].…”

“…This optical transparency afforded by refractive index matching has enabled PISA-synthesized PTFEMAbased nano-objects in other solvents as well to form highly transparent Pickering emulsions and monitor the character of the polymerization [63,64], but the behaviour of the colloids themselves has not previously been considered. As the particles are synthesized in non-polar solvents, poly(stearyl methacrylate) (PSMA) was selected as a steric stabilizer, given its established ability to stabilize copolymer nano-objects in such media [52,53,55,[57][58][59][60]. The PISA synthesis route is shown in scheme 1.…”

Aqueous solution behavior of stimulus-responsive poly(methacrylic acid)-poly(2-hydroxypropyl methacrylate) diblock copolymer nanoparticles

“…n-alkanes). 55,56 The majority of PISA syntheses reported in the literature are based on reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) polymerization. 47,57 Both PAA and PMAA have been evaluated for aqueous PISA formulations.…”