One-pot synthesis of micron-sized polybetaine particles: innovative use of supercritical carbon dioxide

Bassett, Simon P., Birkin, Natasha A., Jennings, James, Champman, Emma, O'Reilly, Rachel K., Howdle, Steven M. and Willcock, Helen (2017) One-pot synthesis of micron-sized polybetaine particles: innovative use of supercritical carbon dioxide. Polymer Chemistry, 8 . pp. 4557-4564. ISSN 1759-9962

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Abstract

Polybetaines exhibit unique properties combining anti-polyelectrolyte and low protein fouling behaviour, as well as biocompatibility. To date, the synthesis of polybetaine particles >50 nm has proved to be extremely challenging with standard emulsion and dispersion techniques being unsuccessful. Here we present the first reported synthesis of micron-sized, discrete cross-linked polybetaine particles, using polymerisation in scCO2 with methanol as a co-solvent. Discrete particles are produced only when the methanol is efficiently removed in situ using scCO2 extraction. A relatively high crosslinking agent initial concentration (10 wt%) was found to result in the most well defined particles, and particle integrity reduced as the crosslinking agent initial concentration was decreased. A monomer loading of between 3.0 × 10−2 mol L−1 and 1.8 × 10−1 mol L−1 resulted in discrete micron sized particles, with significant agglomoration occuring as the monomer loading was increased further. A spherical morphology and extremely low size dispersity was observed by SEM analysis for the optimised particles. The particles were readily re-dispersed in aqueous solution and light scattering measurements confirmed their low size dispersity.

Item Type: Article
RIS ID: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/870882
Schools/Departments: University of Nottingham, UK > Faculty of Science > School of Chemistry
Identification Number: https://doi.org/10.1039/C7PY00455A
Depositing User: Smith, Ruth
Date Deposited: 13 Oct 2017 10:42
Last Modified: 04 May 2020 18:53
URI: https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/id/eprint/47250

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