Chapter 6 - Polymer nanoparticles

Abstract

Polymer nanoparticles have been used for centuries, mostly unknowingly; the latex produced by Hevea brasiliensis is composed of nanoparticles of cis-1,4-polyisoprene in suspension in an aqueous solution of proteins. During World War II, challenges with the supply of natural latex produced by the rubber tree have steered the scientific community to seek for alternatives. This led to the discovery of other sources of natural rubber, like dandelion rubber, and the development of synthetic polymer nanocolloids. The race toward synthetic rubber can be traced back as far as 1860, with the first isolation and polymerization of isoprene. However, it is only with the introduction of the concept of emulsion polymerization that synthetic rubbers with processability similar to natural latex, a type of rubber mostly produced by the hevea tree, were finally manufactured. Since then, formulations of polymer nanoparticles have found applications in a variety of industrial applications such as paints, coatings, and resins. Still, today’s developments in polymer chemistry and in the formulation and processing of polymer dispersions are now giving rise to a new generation of polymer nanocolloids designed for an array of fields from nanomedicine to optoelectronic.