Life is an “emergent” property – i.e., one exhibited by living systems as a whole, but not by any of their individual parts. In a single eukaryotic cell, there exist internal compartments called organelles, such as the nucleus and mitochondria. While the organelles each have distinct functions, it is the overall cell that has the property of life – i.e., the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. Here, we describe our attempts to create millimeter-scale polymer capsules that exhibit emergent properties. In particular, we have created multicompartment capsules (MCCs) that have many internal compartments, each with distinct contents. We have also found ways to perfectly encapsulate (hermetically seal) solutes in a capsule core until the capsule is heated. The key to this property is to employ  a shell that is impermeable to solutes at low temperatures. However, the shell melts away at high temperatures, thereby allowing the solute to diffuse into adjacent compartments. Using this concept, we have activated multi-step or cascade reactions within an MCC upon exposure to specific temperatures.  Also, we encapsulate a chemical fuel in a capsule, and use this as an inner compartment in an MCC that has catalytic particles in the lumen. Under a thermal trigger, the fuel is released into the lumen, and the catalyst decomposes the fuel to generate a gas. The gas causes the entire MCC to inflate and eventually rupture. Thus, the overall MCC exhibits an emergent property (inflation) that is not exhibited by any of its individual components.

Emergent behavior of multicompartment capsules activated by a thermal trigger

2019 Spring National Meeting

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