Preparation of organic-inorganic doublet particles using seeded polymerization

Abstract

Recently, there has been great interest in organic-inorganic hybrid particles due to their extraordinary properties of combining organic and inorganic components. Various synthesis processes for organic-inorganic hybrid particles have been reported including Layer-by-Layer (LBL) assembly and emulsion polymerization. Using these methods, core-shell particles are commonly produced. In our previous work, we produced organic-inorganic hybrid microsphere incorporated an inorganic network into the core polymer by simple dispersion polymerization. These techniques are useful for synthesis of organic-inorganic composite particles, but these are only suitable to prepare the spherical shaped particles. Besides, it is difficult to control the distribution of chemical composition of the particles. In this study, we produced a unique doublet hybrid particle with a distinct organic and inorganic region through seeded polymerization. The doublet structure was controlled by the elastic-retractile force and phase separation due to a crosslink of the semi-interpenetrating polymer network (semi-IPN) seed particle. The obtained doublet particles had hydrophilic/ hydrophobic properties on the distinct surface. Because of their controllable and superior properties of “chemical selectivity” and “amphiphilicity”, it is expected that these particles can be applied to biosensors, colloidal stabilizers and self-assembling particles.