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Preparation of Giant Vesicles Encapsulating Microspheres by Centrifugation of a Water-in-oil Emulsion
Published on: January 24, 2017
Seeded Emulsion Polymerization of Styrene in the Presence of Water-Swollen Hydrogel Microspheres
Takumi Watanabe, Chihong Song1, Kazuyoshi Murata1
1National Institute for Physiological Sciences , 38 Nishigonaka , Okazaki , Aichi 444-8585 , Japan.
Abstract:
In a previous study, we have ascertained that the charge distribution in hydrogel microspheres (microgels) plays a crucial role in controlling the nanocomposite structure of the polystyrene obtained from the seeded emulsion polymerization (SEP) of styrene in the presence of microgels. However, all these polymerizations were conducted at high temperature, where most of these microgels were dehydrated and deswollen. In the present study, we initially verified that the nanocomposite microgels can be synthesized even when the seed microgels are swollen and hydrated during the SEP of styrene. These highly swollen microgels were used as the nucleation sites for the polystyrene, and subsequently the propagation of the hydrophobic polystyrenes proceeded within water-swollen microgels.
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