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A green and scalable route to water-in-water emulsion stabilizers using photoenzymatic polymerization-induced self-assembly
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DOI:10.1007/s11426-026-3499-2.png)
Abstract
En 中文
Water-in-water (w/w) emulsions are biphasic all-aqueous systems with promising applications in bioreactors and drug delivery. However, their stabilization is challenging due to an extremely low interfacial tension. We report a green and scalable strategy based on photoenzymatic reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) aqueous dispersion copolymerization to prepare well-defined diblock copolymer nanoparticles and demonstrate their efficacy as stabilizers for w/w emulsions. Using poly(N,N-dimethylacrylamide) as a macromolecular chain transfer agent, we synthesized a series of spherical nanoparticles with controlled molecular weights and tunable diameters via statistical copolymerization of diacetone acrylamide with N,N-dimethylacrylamide. These sterically-stabilized nanoparticles effectively stabilize w/w emulsions composed of immiscible aqueous solutions of poly(ethylene glycol) and dextran. Notably, nanoparticles of intermediate diameter (Dh = 199 nm) conferred extraordinary stability, maintaining emulsion stability for more than 50 h. This study establishes an environmentally benign and scalable approach to prepare tailorable nanoparticles for biocompatible w/w emulsions, which offer potential biomedical applications.
Keywords:
water-in-water emulsion
polymerization-induced self-assembly (PISA)
photoenzymatic RAFT polymerization
Journal
IF:
9.7
Papers:
5.4K
Citations:
1.5W
