Polymeric nanomaterials are critical tools in a variety of fields including biomaterials, catalysis, drug-delivery, cell adhesion, chemical sensing, and organic synthesis. The ability to tailor such particles to specific size, shape, and surface characteristics is important to many of their potential applications.  Smart materials are those that are able to respond in desirable ways to changes in physical or chemical conditions, such as temperature, illumination, solution properties, or applied fields. The incorporation of �smart� behavior into polymer nanoparticles makes them capable of adapting to their localized environment and optimizes their performance of various functions.  The design and development of smart materials is an emerging area of interest. Microemulsion- polymerization using surfactants or other emulsion stabilizers is a common method for making polymeric particles of varying size.  Such processes lead to an adsorbed surfactant layer that can be difficult to remove and are generally limited to the production of spherical polymer particles.  Moreover, the presence of surfactants and other stabilizers can inhibit surface-modification methods during or after particle growth.  We will describe our progress toward the development of surfactant-free nanoparticles with tailored surfaces using emulsion-polymerization in an acoustic field.  We have synthesized surfactant-free nanoparticles of polystyrene and poly(methyl methacrylate) using acoustic-field mediated emulsion-polymerization.  In both cases the product nanoparticles were characterized using FTIR.  We have also conducted initial SEM investigations. The SEM image below shows polystyrene nanoparticles ranging in size from 100-900 nm (well-resolved spheres).  There are also many smaller particles that we have yet to characterize. We are currently working on getting better images of these small particles.  We are also working on an improved method for developing nanoparticles with a narrower size distribution.

Surfactant-free nanoparticles using sonically-induced emulsion polymerization

247th National Meeting (2014)

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