Qiu Jichuan, Shang Yuxin, Xu Jianchang, Xia Younan
The Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology and Emory University, Atlanta, GA, 30332, USA.
State Key Laboratory of Crystal Materials, Shandong University, Jinan, Shandong, 250100, China.
Small. 2022 Oct;18(42):e2204278. doi: 10.1002/smll.202204278. Epub 2022 Sep 7.
The dissolution of a polymeric solid typically starts with the absorption of solvent molecules, followed by swelling and volume expansion. Only when the extent of swelling reaches a threshold can the polymer chains be disentangled and then dissolved into the solvent. When the polymeric solid is encapsulated in a rigid shell, the swelling process will be impeded. Despite the widespread use of this process, it is rarely discussed in the literature how the polymeric solid is dissolved from the core for the generation of colloidal hollow particles. Recent studies have started to shed light on the mechanistic details involved in the formation of hollow particles through a template-directed process. Depending on the nature of the material used for the template, the removal of the template may involve different mechanisms and pathways, leading to the formation of distinct products. Here, a number of examples are used to illustrate this important phenomenon that is largely neglected in the literature. This article also discusses how the swelling of a polymeric template encapsulated in a rigid shell can be leveraged to fabricate new types of functional colloidal particles.
聚合物固体的溶解通常始于溶剂分子的吸收，随后是溶胀和体积膨胀。只有当溶胀程度达到阈值时，聚合物链才能解开缠结，然后溶解在溶剂中。当聚合物固体封装在刚性壳层中时，溶胀过程将受到阻碍。尽管该过程被广泛使用，但文献中很少讨论聚合物固体如何从核心溶解以生成胶体空心颗粒。最近的研究开始揭示通过模板导向过程形成空心颗粒所涉及的机理细节。根据用于模板的材料的性质，模板的去除可能涉及不同的机制和途径，从而导致形成不同的产物。在这里，使用了许多例子来说明这一在文献中很大程度上被忽视的重要现象。本文还讨论了如何利用封装在刚性壳层中的聚合物模板的溶胀来制造新型功能性胶体颗粒。
