Abstract
Multicomponent polymer particles with specific morphology are promising materials exhibiting novel functionality which cannot be obtained with single-component polymer particles. Particularly, the preparation of such kinds of polymer particles involving electrically or optically active conjugated polymers with uniform size is a challenging subject due to their intense demands. Here, microspheres of binary polymer blend consisting of poly(4-butyltriphenylamine) (PBTPA)/poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) (1:1 in weight) were produced via a microfluidic emulsification with a Y-shaped microreactor, and a subsequent solvent evaporation method. The flow rate of the dispersed phase (polymer solution) was fixed to 7 µL/min, and 140 or 700 µL/min of the flow rate of the continuous phase (aqueous 0.6 wt % of poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) solution) was utilized to produce the dispersion with different diameter. The concentration of dispersed phase was adjusted to 0.1 or 1.0 w/v%. Core-shell, Janus and dumbbell type microspheres were obtained dependent on the flow rate of continuous phase. Incomplete core-shell type microspheres were produced for the blend involving low molecular weight PMMA. Complex Janus and core-shell type microspheres were fabricated by the addition of sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) to continuous phase. It is found that final morphologies are strongly dependent on the initial conditions of dispersion including the particle size suggesting that the morphologies are governed by the kinetical factors together with the conventionally accepted thermodynamic ones.
Highlights
Polymer microspheres with various functionalities have been utilized in the fields of medicine and electric devices [1,2]
We report microfluidic approach to fabricate microspheres with a variety of morphologies based on PBTPA/poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) binary blends, where the combination of the microfluidic emulsification with a Y-shaped microreactor, and the subsequent solvent evaporation method was utilized
In the fabrication condition represented as A1 in Table 1, core-shell type of microspheres (PMMA; shell, and PBTPA; core, each component was assigned from SEM images) were obtained
Summary
Polymer microspheres with various functionalities have been utilized in the fields of medicine and electric devices [1,2]. The function of polymer microspheres originates both from chemical and physical properties of polymeric components. The porosity, the surface area, and mechanical strength play important roles in the field of the solid catalysts and the various types of supports. The shape, the size, and the internal morphology are important factors to create and improve the novel functions [3,4,5,6]. Among the types of particles, composite polymer particles consisting of two or more kinds of polymer components have been known to exhibit special functions. Since most of the different polymers are incompatible with each other except for rare combinations, the multiphases comprising the respective polymer appear during
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