Biocompatible Anisotropic Designer Particles

Abstract

In recent years, particle technologies have been broadly focused on the manipulation of size, shape and surface chemistry. The electrohydrodynamic co-jetting of different polymer solutions lead to a unique design of particles with multiple and distinct surface patterns of micro- or nano-compartments. Moreover, the ability to selectively modify individual areas on the surface of a particle, cylinder or a fiber is another important physico-chemical property, which necessitates the anisotropic distribution of interfacial binding sides. The current chapter will focus on the spatioselective surface modification of individual compartments that can yield a novel type of shape-shifted microcylinders via surface-selective click chemistry in conjunction with surface-initiated atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP). Additional examples will also be discussed toward microparticles with fully orthogonal surface patches that take advantage of a combination of chemically orthogonal polylactide-based polymers and their fabrication via electrohydrodynamic co-jetting to yield rarely reported multifunctional microparticles. Finally, these microparticles will be applied as drug delivery vehicles to carry multiple drugs and to release them at desirable rates. Several microstructured particles are highly sought after for their potential to present multiple distinct ligands in a directional manner for targeted drug delivery applications.