TY - JOUR
T1 - Structured Nanoparticles from the Self-Assembly of Polymer Blends through Rapid Solvent Exchange
AU - Li, Nannan
AU - Panagiotopoulos, Athanassios Z.
AU - Nikoubashman, Arash
N1 - Funding Information:
Financial support for this work was provided by the Princeton Center for Complex Materials (PCCM), a U.S. National Science Foundation Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (grant DMR-1420541). Furthermore, N.L. acknowledges funding from the Agency for Science Technology and Research (A∗STAR), Singapore. A.N. acknowledges funding from the German Research Foundation (DFG) under project number NI 1487/2-1.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 American Chemical Society.
PY - 2017/6/20
Y1 - 2017/6/20
N2 - Molecular dynamics simulations were performed to study systematically the rapid mixing of a polymer blend in solution with a miscible nonsolvent. In agreement with experiments, we observe that polymers self-assemble into complex nanoparticles, such as Janus and core-shell particles, when the good solvent is displaced by the poor solvent. The emerging structures can be predicted on the basis of the surface tensions between the polymers as well as between the polymers and the surrounding liquid. Furthermore, the size of the nanoparticles can be independently tuned through the mixing rate and the polymer concentration in the feed stream; meanwhile, the composition of the nanoparticles can be controlled by the polymer feed ratio. Our results demonstrate that this process is highly promising for the production of structured nanoparticles in a continuous and scalable way with independent and precise control over particle size, morphology, and composition. Such tailored nanoparticles are highly sought after in various scientific and industrial applications, and our theoretical findings provide important guidelines for designing appropriate experimental fabrication processes.
AB - Molecular dynamics simulations were performed to study systematically the rapid mixing of a polymer blend in solution with a miscible nonsolvent. In agreement with experiments, we observe that polymers self-assemble into complex nanoparticles, such as Janus and core-shell particles, when the good solvent is displaced by the poor solvent. The emerging structures can be predicted on the basis of the surface tensions between the polymers as well as between the polymers and the surrounding liquid. Furthermore, the size of the nanoparticles can be independently tuned through the mixing rate and the polymer concentration in the feed stream; meanwhile, the composition of the nanoparticles can be controlled by the polymer feed ratio. Our results demonstrate that this process is highly promising for the production of structured nanoparticles in a continuous and scalable way with independent and precise control over particle size, morphology, and composition. Such tailored nanoparticles are highly sought after in various scientific and industrial applications, and our theoretical findings provide important guidelines for designing appropriate experimental fabrication processes.
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U2 - 10.1021/acs.langmuir.7b00291
DO - 10.1021/acs.langmuir.7b00291
M3 - Article
C2 - 28314373
AN - SCOPUS:85018468414
SN - 0743-7463
VL - 33
SP - 6021
EP - 6028
JO - Langmuir
JF - Langmuir
IS - 24
ER -