Staub Mark Clyde, Yu Shichen, Li Christopher Yuren
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, USA.
Macromol Rapid Commun. 2023 Jan;44(1):e2200529. doi: 10.1002/marc.202200529. Epub 2022 Aug 5.
Polymer crystalsomes are a class of hollow crystalline polymer nanoparticles with shells formed by single crystals with broken translational symmetry. They have shown intriguing mechanical, thermal, and biomedical properties associated with spherical packing. Previously reported crystalsomes are formed by quasi-2D lamellae which can readily tile on a spherical surface. In this work, the formation of polymer crystalsomes formed by 1D polymer crystals is reported. Poly (3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) is chosen as the model polymer because of its 1D growth habit. P3HT crystalsomes are successfully fabricated using a miniemulsion solution crystallization method, as confirmed by scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy. X-ray diffraction (XRD) and selected area electron diffraction experiments confirm that P3HT crystallized into a Form I crystal structure. XRD, differential scanning calorimetry and UV-Vis results reveal curvature-dependent structural, thermal and electro-optical properties.
聚合物晶体囊泡是一类中空的结晶聚合物纳米颗粒，其壳层由具有破坏平移对称性的单晶形成。它们展现出了与球形堆积相关的有趣的机械、热学和生物医学特性。先前报道的晶体囊泡是由准二维片层形成的，这些片层能够很容易地平铺在球形表面上。在这项工作中，报道了由一维聚合物晶体形成的聚合物晶体囊泡的形成过程。由于聚（3-己基噻吩）（P3HT）具有一维生长习性，因此被选为模型聚合物。通过扫描电子显微镜和透射电子显微镜证实，使用微乳液溶液结晶法成功制备了P3HT晶体囊泡。X射线衍射（XRD）和选区电子衍射实验证实，P3HT结晶为I型晶体结构。XRD、差示扫描量热法和紫外-可见光谱结果揭示了与曲率相关的结构、热学和电光特性。
