• Membrane Journal
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.61-65
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• 2019

Anisotropic particles have been issued in various fields due to their unique physical properties. Herein, a novel dynamic phase separation method (DPS) is introduced to fabricate anisotropic acorn-like nanoparticles. DPS consists of two dynamic conditions; solvent evaporation and nonsolvent induced precipitation. The bottom layer is controlled by feeding the water as a non-solvent diluent, and the phase separation of the upper layer relies on the diffusion and evaporation of a volatile good solvent. At this condition, the acorn-like particles were fabricated. Under a closed box filled with water (spontaneous phase separation), monodisperse polystyrene (PS) particles were synthesized. At the coexistence between DPS and spontaneous phase separation, the sizes of cap and particle were changed. Also, the volume of PS solutions influences on the particle shape. Since the unique structures could be utilized into various applications, if advanced techniques such as membrane-based controlled water feeding is developed, monodisperse acorn-like particles could be tuned.