Functional polymer particles with controlled multiphase morphology are interesting for fundamental study of colloidal physics and chemistry. Such particles are also industrially useful in consumer products and possess potential as components in nanotechnology applications. To scale the production of functional particles for practical applications, predictable control of particle size and morphology must be developed by elucidating mechanistic understanding of bottom-up fabrication techniques and the factors that influence phase separation in systems confined by soft interfaces. Seeded emulsion polymerization (SEP) is an emerging phase separation-based particle fabrication technique used to produce uniform and monodisperse polymer colloids with complex and multiphasic morphology. To expand the utility of SEP, <i>on-demand </i>fabrication of complex polymer particles with predictable morphology in multiple size regimes must be achieved. This contribution builds off our previous work on bottom-up morphological control in SEP and examines the evolution of particle morphology as a function of seed particle size and seeded emulsion droplet size. This study utilizes model chemistries to drive fundamental inquiry into the effect of the reactive emulsion droplet surface area to bulk volume ratio on phase separation and the final particle morphology. By doing so, an understanding of how SEP conditions can be tuned to produce the desired multiphase polymer colloid will be achieved.

Effect of interface area in phase separation of reactive emulsion droplets

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ACS Fall 2022

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