Hydrogel microspheres, or microgels, are water-swollen nanomaterials composed of crosslinked amphiphilic polymer chains. Due to a variety of their advantages compared to solid microspheres, microgels have much attention in many applications such as sensors, catalysts, and coatings. To develop microgels with advanced properties, the fabrication of (nano)composite structures is an efficient approach. So far, we have discovered a series of hydrogel/solid nanocomposite microgels, which were synthesized by seeded emulsion polymerization (SEP) in the presence of microgels. As the properties of nanocomposite microgels are strongly correlated to their nanostructures, accurate nanostructural analysis is required. In the present study, we precisely determined the 3D structure of a series of solid/hydrogel nanocomposite microgels by cryo-electron tomography (cryoET) analysis, in addition to scanning electron and transmission electron microscopy, using the synthesized composite microgels with a variety of well-defined structures. The obtained images of cryoET provided important insights into interactions between hydrophobic molecules such as styrene and microgels. It was also discovered that hydrophobic monomers can recognize different microenvironments within microgels. Thus, SEP in the presence of microgels allows hydrophobization of water-swollen hydrated microgels and the formation of unprecedented multilayered nanocomposite microgels. We are convinced that our results of this study should lead to the development of noteworthy research on nanocomposite microgels.

Nanocomposite microgels prepared by seeded emulsion polymerization

ACS Spring Meeting 2021

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