By combining key concepts from polymer precipitation and interfacial polymerization with multiphasic fluid shear, we introduce a new method of fabricating a plethora of polymer micro- and nanostructures. This new soft matter nanofabrication technique is versatile, easily tunable, and scalable. A polymer solution is injected in non-solvent medium and precipitated at the interface of the formed multiphasic system under varying liquid shear and interdiffusion conditions. While the liquid shear-driven process is very simple, various combinations of its parameters lead to formation of myriad amazingly diverse colloidal morphologies out of almost any type of polymer. Our previous research on sheared liquid precipitation revealed the formation of microrod, fiber, and “dendricolloid” morphologies. Here, we demonstrate that these are just a few of the multitude of colloidal polymer structures that this liquid nanofabrication technique can produce. To exemplify, we will present data on up to 12 distinctive structures made from the same polymer, polystyrene. The results are interpreted and generalized based on a model which delineates the physical processes into three stages: hydrodynamic shear, mechanical response, and precipitation rate. These insights in the fundamental mechanisms underlying this method allows for tuning of material structure towards an “all-in-one” scalable nanofabrication platform.

Controlled scalable nanofabrication of new classes of colloidal polymer morphologies in sheared liquids

ACS Spring Meeting 2021

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