<br/>We have addressed the problem of the concurrent vesicle fabrication and encapsulation of an active and functional chemical reaction which is the same reaction that, from a well-stirred mixture, controls and carries out the synthesis of the amphiphilic block copolymers that self-assemble into the polymer vesicles that encapsulate the reaction. We use the chemical energy and radicals provided by the Belousov-Zhabotinsky (B-Z) chemical reaction to synthesize the micrometer- size vesicles enclosing this (active) oscillating chemical reaction inside. The periodically formed radicals from B-Z reaction initiate radical polymerization between a polyethylene glycol based chain transfer agent (PEG-CTA) and acrylonitrile monomers in water. The different chemical environments inside and outside the vesicles contribute to enlarging the area and diameter of the resulting self-assembled vesicles and, in some cases, promote blebbing and division.

Autonomous non-linear chemical control of functional polymer vesicle self-assembly from a ‘homogeneous mixture’

255th National Meeting (2018)

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