Colloid and Polymer Science

, Volume 295, Issue 4, pp 613–617 | Cite as

Facile synthesis of tunable core-shell particles via one-step copolymerization

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Abstract

A type of tunable particles consisting of a soft poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAM) core and a solid shell were directly synthesized in toluene via a facile one-pot copolymerization of N-isopropylacrylamide (NIPAM), (3-Methacryloyloxypropyl)methyldiethoxysilane (MADS), and N,N′-methylenebis(2-propenamide) (MBA). Of particular concern is the shells’ potential to burst due to the swelling and expansion of the PNIPAM core after soaking in water, resulting in an outflow of the core. The toughness of the particle shells could be tuned by altering the feed ratio of MADS or MBA relative to NIPAM, resulting in a series of morphologies that varied from resembling a broken egg to being deformed core-shell spheres. The morphologies could be further modulated by dispersing the particles in different solvents.

Keywords

Tunable core-shell particles Deformable particles with flowable core Responsive hybrid particles with egg structure Tunable morphology 
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Notes

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Open Foundation of the National Laboratory, the Recruitment Program of BIFT Talent, and the Beijing Innovation Project of the Teacher Team (No. IDHT20140502).

Compliance with ethical standards

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Supplementary material

396_2017_4034_MOESM1_ESM.docx (8.4 mb)
ESM 1 (DOCX 8575 kb)

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Copyright information

© Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2017

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.School of Materials Science and EngineeringBeijing Institute of Fashion TechnologyBeijingPeople’s Republic of China
  2. 2.Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, CAS Key Laboratory of Engineering Plastics, Institute of ChemistryChinese Academy of SciencesBeijingPeople’s Republic of China

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