Polymer Single-Chain Nanoparticles: Shaping Solid Surfactants.

Authors :: Li S
Sun S
Luo J
Xia Z
Wang Y
Russell TP
Shi S
Yang Z
Source :: Macromolecular rapid communications [Macromol Rapid Commun] 2024 Nov; Vol. 45 (21), pp. e2400393. Date of Electronic Publication: 2024 Sep 18.
Publication Year :: 2024
Abstract: Polymer single-chain nanoparticles (SCNPs) have found a wide range of applications spanning catalysts, sensors and nanomedicine. The generation of structured SCNPs from star-shaped polymers with diverse architectures and functionalities affords a new avenue to expand the emerging research area. The large-scale synthesis of structured SCNPs is described by the electrostatics-mediated intramolecular crosslinking of three types of 3-armed star-shaped polymers (T-P4VP, T-PS-b-P4VP, and T-P4VP-b-PS), whose configuration is tunable from spherical to cage-shaped to dumbbell-shaped and star-shaped. The structured SCNPs are amphiphilic and can be used as solid surfactants to stabilize different types of emulsions.<br /> (© 2024 Wiley‐VCH GmbH.)