Abstract
Responsive polymer particles with switchable properties are of great importance for designing smart materials in various applications. Recently, the self-assembly of block copolymers (BCPs) and polymer blends within evaporative emulsions has led to advances in the shape-controlled synthesis of polymer particles. Despite extensive recent progress on BCP particles, the responsive shape tuning of BCP particles and their applications have received little attention. This review provides a brief overview of recent approaches to developing non-spherical polymer particles from soft evaporative emulsions based on the physical principles affecting both particle shape and inner structure. Special attention is paid to the stimuli-responsive, shape-changing nanostructured polymer particles, i.e., design of polymers and surfactant pairs, detailed experimental results, and their applications, including the state-of-the-art progress in this field. Finally, the perspectives on current challenges and future directions in this research field are presented, including the development of surfactants with higher reversibility to multiple stimuli and polymers with unique structural functionality, and diversification of polymer architectures.
Highlights
Responsive polymer particles are designed to alter their properties upon exposure to physical, chemical, and biological stimuli
The soft and mobile interface of the emulsion leads to a spontaneous deformation of the particle shape, providing a convenient and robust tool for predicting and tailoring the nanostructure of block copolymers (BCPs) particles
We focus on the recent advances in the design of sive polymer particles with well-defined shapes and nanostructures based on the confined responsive polymer particles with well-defined shapes and nanostructures based on the assembly of BCPs from emulsions
Summary
Responsive polymer particles are designed to alter their properties upon exposure to physical, chemical, and biological stimuli. Despite gradual progress in the preparation of responsive polymer particles, most of the examples are micellar structures [6,7,8,9], while the examples of few-micron-sized particles are very limited In this regard, solvent evaporation-driven self-assembly of block copolymer (BCP). The soft and mobile interface of the emulsion leads to a spontaneous deformation of the particle shape, providing a convenient and robust tool for predicting and tailoring the nanostructure of BCP particles In this process, the precise modulation of the interfacial activity of BCP particles by responsive surfactants is crucial in achieving switchable shape and internal nanostructure of particles in response to external stimuli.
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