Rapid production of monodisperse cross-linked red blood corpuscle-like particles via scalable one-pot dispersion polymerization

Abstract

Cross-linked polystyrene (PS) particles having red blood corpuscle (RBC)-like shape were synthesized by one-pot dispersion polymerization of styrene with ethanol/water mixture and ethylene glycol dimethacrylate (EGDMA) as the reaction medium and cross-linker, respectively. Monitoring of the reaction showed that RBC-like shape forms due to asymmetric shrinkage of a cross-linked network during the phase separation. In addition, three dimensional phase diagram was generated based on the yielded data that showed that the formation of such unique shape extremely depends on the polarity of the medium and injection time of the cross-linker. In situ synthesis of RBC-like particles, as promising biomaterials in targeted drug delivery and a model for the understanding of the cell behavior, via such fast and high solid content approach makes it to be conducive to subsequent scale up, i.e. potential commercial adoption.