The study of composite colloids offers diverse research opportunities encompassing both fundamental principles of soft matter and practical applications in bionanotechnology, environmental sensing and remediation, advanced coatings, and emulsion stabilization. Functional polymer chemistries, such as polyzwitterions, can enhance the utility of this material class by imparting stimuli-response, biocompatibility, and anti-fouling properties. However, the bottom-up integration of polyzwitterions into multicomponent colloids remains a challenge because polyzwitterions are difficult to process with the traditional chemistries and fabrication methods used by colloidal scientists. This contribution demonstrates a one-step synthesis of zwitterionic colloids by the dispersion copolymerization of styrene and sulfobetaine methacrylate in a solvent mixture of alcohol and water. The resulting composite colloids exhibit responsive cavity formation by environmentally benign triggers. We examine the effect of the monomer feed ratio and solvent composition on the colloid morphology and polymer solubility. This study utilizes model chemistries to drive fundamental inquiry into the mechanism of formation for these responsive cavity-forming zwitterionic colloids.

One-step synthesis of responsive cavity-forming zwitterionic colloids

ACS Spring Meeting 2021

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.