The study of multiphasic 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. Hydrophilic polymer chemistries can enhance the utility of this material class by imparting stimuli-response, biocompatibility, and anti-fouling properties. However, the bottom-up integration of hydrophilic polymers into multicomponent colloids remains a challenge because the corresponding monomers are difficult to process with hydrophobic chemistries in one-pot fabrication methods commonly used by colloid scientists. This contribution demonstrates the one-step synthesis of multiphasic colloids by dispersion copolymerization of styrene and hydrophilic monomers in a solvent mixture of alcohol and water. We examine the time-dependent morphology evolution to develop a mechanistic description of the particle nucleation and growth process. Further systematic studies evaluate the effect of monomer feed and solvent composition on the colloid morphology. Special emphasis is given to multiphasic particles spanning partial wetting to core-shell morphologies, and we demonstrate a unique spontaneous cavity-forming behavior in response to environmentally benign triggers. This study utilizes model chemistries to drive fundamental inquiry into the utility of one-pot methods to fabricate multiphasic and functional polymer colloids using hydrophobic-hydrophilic monomer pairs.

One-step synthesis of multiphasic polymer colloids

ACS Spring 2022

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