title: Electrostatically Directed Self-Assembly of Ultrathin Supramolecular Polymer Microcapsules.
abstract: Supramolecular self-assembly offers routes to challenging architectures on the molecular and macroscopic scale. Coupled with microfluidics it has been used to make microcapsules-where a 2D sheet is shaped in 3D, encapsulating the volume within. In this paper, a versatile methodology to direct the accumulation of capsule-forming components to the droplet interface using electrostatic interactions is described. In this approach, charged copolymers are selectively partitioned to the microdroplet interface by a complementary charged surfactant for subsequent supramolecular cross-linking via cucurbit[8]uril. This dynamic assembly process is employed to selectively form both hollow, ultrathin microcapsules and solid microparticles from a single solution. The ability to dictate the distribution of a mixture of charged copolymers within the microdroplet, as demonstrated by the single-step fabrication of distinct core-shell microcapsules, gives access to a new generation of innovative self-assembled constructs.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, University of Cambridge Lensfield Road, Cambridge, CB2 1EW, UK E-mail: ca26@cam.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Richard M
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Parker
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, University of Cambridge Lensfield Road, Cambridge, CB2 1EW, UK E-mail: ca26@cam.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Jing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Melville Laboratory for Polymer Synthesis, Department of Chemistry, University of Cambridge Lensfield Road, Cambridge, CB2 1EW, UK.
authors.forename: Yu
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zheng
authors.affiliation: Melville Laboratory for Polymer Synthesis, Department of Chemistry, University of Cambridge Lensfield Road, Cambridge, CB2 1EW, UK.
authors.forename: Roger J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Coulston
authors.affiliation: Sphere Fluidics Limited, The Jonas Webb Building, Babraham Research Campus Babraham Cambridge, CB22 3AT, UK.
authors.forename: Clive A
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Smith
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, University of Cambridge Lensfield Road, Cambridge, CB2 1EW, UK E-mail: ca26@cam.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Andrew R
authors.initials: AR
authors.lastname: Salmon
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, University of Cambridge Lensfield Road, Cambridge, CB2 1EW, UK E-mail: ca26@cam.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Ziyi
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.affiliation: Melville Laboratory for Polymer Synthesis, Department of Chemistry, University of Cambridge Lensfield Road, Cambridge, CB2 1EW, UK.
authors.forename: Oren A
authors.initials: OA
authors.lastname: Scherman
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, University of Cambridge Lensfield Road, Cambridge, CB2 1EW, UK E-mail: ca26@cam.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Chris
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Abell
keywords: microcapsules; microfluidics; microstructures; self-assembly; supramolecular materials