Template-Free Bottom-Up Method for Fabricating Diblock Copolymer Patchy Particles.
Patchy particles are one of most important building blocks for hierarchical structures because of the discrete patches on their surface. We have demonstrated a convenient, simple, and scalable bottom-up method for fabricating diblock copolymer patchy particles through both experiments and dissipative particle dynamics (DPD) simulations. The experimental method simply involves reducing the solvent quality of the diblock copolymer solution by the slow addition of a nonsolvent. Specifically, the fabrication of diblock copolymer patchy particles begins with a crew-cut soft-core micelle, where the micelle core is significantly swelled by the solvent. With water addition at an extremely slow rate, the crew-cut soft-core micelles first form a larger crew-cut micelle. With further water addition, the corona-forming blocks of the crew-cut micelles begin to aggregate and eventually form well-defined patches. Both experiments and DPD simulations indicate that the number of patches has a very strong dependence on the diblock copolymer composition-the particle has more patches on the surface with a lower volume fraction of patch-forming blocks. Furthermore, particles with more patches have a greater ability to assemble, and particles with fewer patches have a greater ability to merge once assembled.
Materials Research and Innovation Laboratory (MRAIL), Sustainable Energy Education and Research Center (SEERC), Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, The University of Tennessee , Knoxville, Tennessee 37996, United States.
Xianggui
X
Ye
State Key Laboratory of Polymer Physics and Chemistry, Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences , Changchun 130022, China.
Zhan-Wei
ZW
Li
State Key Laboratory of Polymer Physics and Chemistry, Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences , Changchun 130022, China.
Zhao-Yan
ZY
Sun
Materials Research and Innovation Laboratory (MRAIL), Sustainable Energy Education and Research Center (SEERC), Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, The University of Tennessee , Knoxville, Tennessee 37996, United States.
Bamin
B
Khomami
PS-b-P4VP; bottom-up method; dissipative particle dynamics simulation; nonsolvent; patchy particle; self-assembly of block copolymer