1. Two-Step Solvent On-Film Annealing (2-SOFA) Method: Fabrication of Anisotropic Polymer Particles and Implications for Colloidal Self-Assembly
- Author
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Yu Jing Chiu, Jiun-Tai Chen, Bo Hao Wu, Jia Wei Li, and Hsiao Fan Tseng
- Subjects
Fabrication ,Materials science ,010405 organic chemistry ,Annealing (metallurgy) ,Composite number ,010402 general chemistry ,01 natural sciences ,0104 chemical sciences ,Surface tension ,chemistry.chemical_compound ,Colloid ,Chemical engineering ,chemistry ,General Materials Science ,Self-assembly ,Polystyrene ,Methyl methacrylate - Abstract
In recent years, anisotropic polymer particles have gained increased interest owing to their special properties and broader applications, such as drug delivery, optical traps, and e-paper display. Most strategies to produce anisotropic polymer particles, however, require sophisticated instruments or additional surfactants. Here, we develop a simple and versatile method, the two-step solvent on-film annealing (2-SOFA) technique, to make anisotropic polymer particles with different shapes. Polystyrene (PS) microspheres spin-coated on poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) films are chosen as model materials. By sequentially annealing the PS/PMMA composites in different solvent vapors, anisotropic polymer particles with distinctive and diverse shapes can be produced, such as half-eaten-peach-shaped, snowman-shaped, and bowler-hat-shaped morphologies. An exquisite selective removal strategy is applied to check the morphologies of the PS/PMMA composite films and to comprehend the transformation mechanism at differen...
- Published
- 2018
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