Polymer Capsules Prepared by Photo- Induced Crosslinking of Aryl Azide Functionalized Amphiphilic Graft Copolymers at the Oil-Water Interface

摘要

Encapsulation and release strategies impact a wide range of technologies, particularly those which involve the controlled release of pharmaceuticals, flavors and fragrances, and agricultural agents. Capsules and vesicles derived from polymer-based materials are well- suited for these applications because of their mechanical stability and tunable chemistries that can provide control over degradation rates, ionic charge, and crosslinking. Polymer capsules can be designed to release active agents over defined time periods, or in response to environmental changes. Polymer-based capsules have been prepared using a number of techniques including the interfacial assembly of polymers and/or colloidal particles,1,2 layer-by-layer deposition of polyelectrolytes onto a sacrificial colloidal core,3,4 and more recently by radial growth and crosslinking of polymers from degradable nanocrystal templates ,6 While these techniques are effective in producing hollow capsules, many of these methods require multiple processing steps and have limitations in their encapsulation efficiency.