Poly(ether sulfone) nanoparticles and controllably modified nanoparticles obtained through temperature‐dependent cryogelation

• Published in: Journal of applied polymer science 2019-05, Vol.136 (20), p.n/a
• Main Authors: Liu, Lukuan, Yang, Kaiguang, Li, Senwu, Zhang, Lihua, Zhang, Yukui
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Addition polymerization; Chemical synthesis; Materials science; Morphology; Nanoparticles; Polymers; Reagents; Temperature dependence
• ISSN: 0021-8995; 1097-4628
• DOI: 10.1002/app.47485

ABSTRACT Poly(ether sulfone) (PES) nanoparticles (NPs) have broad application prospects in the field of nanomedicine. However, the current techniques could not be used to create PES‐based NPs because of a lack of sophisticated equipment. In this study, a temperature‐dependent cryogelation process was developed to fabricate PES NPs through PES self‐assembly under unusually low polymer concentrations in the absence of any nanomanufacturing equipment or synthesis steps. The morphologies of the prepared NPs varied with the concentration difference of the initial PES solutions, and the diameter of the polymer particles reached about 50 nm with a high monodispersity. Furthermore, cocryogelation was explored in a novel manner to introduce two representative reversible addition−fragmentation chain‐transfer (RAFT) agents onto the PES NPs separately for the following modification. Then, surface‐initiated RAFT polymerization was also conducted to enable the controllable variation of the polymer brushes outside the NPs to verify their scalability for further application. © 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2019, 136, 47485.