Liquid Crystalline Nanoparticles via Polymerization-Induced Self-Assembly: Morphology Evolution and Function Regulation.

Abstract

Liquid crystalline nanoparticles (LC NPs) are a kind of polymer NPs with LC mesogens, which can form special anisotropic morphologies due to the influence of LC ordering. Owing to the stimuli-responsiveness of the LC blocks, LC NPs show abundant morphology evolution behaviors in response to external regulation. LC NPs have great application potential in nano-devices, drug delivery, special fibers and other fields. Polymerization-induced self-assembly (PISA) method can synthesize LC NPs at high solid content, reducing the harsh demand for reaction solvent of the LC polymers, being a better choice for large-scale production. In this review, we introduced recent research progress of PISA-LC NPs by dividing them into several parts according to the LC mesogen, and discussed the improvement of experimental conditions and the potential application of these polymers.