Towards Chiral Colloids from Isotropic Spheres
Summary
This research describes the synthesis of photo-crosslinkable colloids in aqueous
media. Colloidal polymeric particles are ?rst obtained via emulsion polymerization
of polystyrene. After the immobilization of a brominated-shell onto the polymeric
particles, Surface-Initiated Atom Transfer Radical Polymerization (SI-ATRP)
is employed to graft brushes from the colloids. Coumarin molecules, which
can reversibly and covalently cross-link upon illumination with UV light, are
subsequently attached to the grafted polymers via click chemistry. Herein, two
approaches using the azide-alkyne click reaction are explored to functionalize
'hairy' colloids with coumarin. The resulting coumarin-functionalized colloids are
used to prepare free-standing supracolloidal assemblies, including chiral colloids,
by means of spatial confinement imposed by hollow supramolecular microtubes.
Preliminary experiments show promising results in colloidal science, since colloidal
chiral structures can be prepared using simple isotropic colloids as building blocks.