Precipitated droplets in-situ cross-linking polymerization and its applications

A novel, green and effective approach to fabricate uniform functional spherical polymer particles remains a huge challenge. Herein, we present a novel one-pot approach superior to traditional precipitation polymerization, called precipitated droplets in-situ cross-linking (PDIC) polymerization, by which uniform particles are fabricated on large scale without any toxic organic solvents or stabilizers. With this approach, functional spherical polymer particles can be fabricated continuously only relying on gravity, and the preparation process is thus super-fast. For example, polyacrylic acid (PAA) hydrogel particles with ultra-high adsorption capacity are fabricated within only 60 s. Moreover, we have successfully fabricated different functional hydrogel particles, including anticoagulant, reinforced and bactericidal particles, based on the monomers of 2-acrylamide-2-methylpropanesulfonic acid (AMPS), acrylamide (AM) and 2-(methacryloyloxy)ethyl]trimethylammonium chloride (DMC), respectively. This approach has several advantages: (i) the technology is green; (ii) the size and porosity of the particles can be well-controlled; (iii) various functional spherical hydrogel particles can be fabricated by using corresponding monomers. More importantly, this approach fits the commercialization of functional hydrogel particles on demand.