• Clean Technology
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.283-288
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• 2019

Monodisperse microparticles has been particularly enabling for various applications in the encapsulation and delivery of pharmaceutical agents. The microfluidic devices are attractive candidates to produce highly uniform droplets that serve as templates to form monodisperse microparticles. The microfluidic devices that have micro-scale channel allow precise control of the balance between surface tension and viscous forces in two-phase flows. One of its essential abilities is to generate highly monodisperse droplets. In this paper, a microfluidic approach for preparing monodisperse polycaprolactone (PCL) microparticles is presented. The microfluidic devices that have a flow-focusing generator are manufactured by soft-lithography using polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS). The crucial factors in the droplet generation are the controllability of size and monodispersity of the microdroplets. For this, the volumetric flow rates of the dispersed phase of oil solution and the continuous phase of water to generate monodisperse droplets are optimized. As a result, the optimal flow condition for droplet dripping region that is able to generate uniform droplet is found. Furthermore, the droplets containing PCL polymer by solvent evaporation after collection of droplet from device is solidified to generate the microparticle. The particle size can be controlled by tuning the flow rate and the size of the microchannel. The monodispersity of the PCL particles is measured by a coefficient of variation (CV) below 5%.

• Proceedings of the Korean Fiber Society Conference
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• 2003.10a
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• pp.94-94
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• 2003

Cross-linked polystyrene (PS) particles with carboxyl and/or poly(ethylene glycol) units on surface were formed by an emulsifier-free emulsion polymerization using styrene, methacrylic acid (MA), and poly(ethylene glycol) dimethacrylate (PEG-diMMA) at pH 7, and followed by freeze-drying to give the corresponding powders. Monodisperse polymer particles could be obtained at a concentration of PEG-diMMA 1 mol% relative to styrene. Zeta potential of polymer surface was measured to be 91 mV at a polymer of PEG-diMMA 1 mol% and was dropped as the content of MA increased.

• Macromolecular Research
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• v.16 no.5
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• pp.399-403
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• 2008

Monodisperse, micron-sized, hybrid particles having a core-shell structure were prepared by coating the surface of poly(methyl methacrylate)(PMMA) microspheres with silica and by copolymerizing acrylamide (AAm) to supply the hydrogen bonding effect by means of the amide groups. Tetraethoxysilane (TEOS) was then slowly dropped onto the medium under certain conditions. Because of the hydrogen bonding between the amide of the PMMA particles and the hydroxyl group of the hydrolyzed silanol, a silica shell was generated on the PMMA core particles. The morphology of the hybrid particles was investigated with transmission (TEM) and scanning (SEM) electron microscopy as a function of the medium conditions and the amount of TEOS. Improved thermal properties were observed by TGA analysis.

• Macromolecular Research
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• v.15 no.5
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• pp.403-411
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• 2007

Monodisperse micron-sized polystyrene (PS) spheres were successfully obtained using a single stage soap-free emulsion method in aqueous media mixed with ethanol (co-solvent) containing NaCI as the electrolyte. The optimum conditions for preparing the monodisperse PS microspheres, using soap-free emulsion polymerization in a water/ethanol mixture with an electrolyte, were studied. The presence of the co-solvent and electrolyte controlled the particle dispersion stability during the polymerization. The microspheres formed using PS, with a weight-average diameter of $2.6{\mu}m$, coefficient of variation of 5.3% and zeta potential of -15.1 eV, were successfully obtained in the presence of 0.1 wt% NaCI, 10 wt% monomer, 0.1 wt% initiator and 95/5 (g/g) of a water/ethanol mixture reacted at $70^{\circ}C$ for 24 h.

• Macromolecular Research
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.163-167
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• 2009

This study presents a microfluidic method for the production of monodisperse poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) microspheres using continuous droplet formation and in situ photopolymerization in microfluidic devices. We investigated the flow patterns for the stable formation of droplets using capillary number and the flow rate of the hexade-cane phase. Under the stable region, the resulting microspheres showed narrow size distribution having a coefficient of variation (CV) of below 1.8%. The size of microspheres ($45{\sim}95{\mu}m$) could be easily controlled by changing the interfacial tension between the two immiscible phases and the flow rates of the dispersed or continuous phase.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2009.11a
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• pp.116-116
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• 2009

$TiO_2$ pastes was synthesized to obtained of high efficiency dye-sensitized solar cells using size dependent co-polymer. SBM co-polymer binder is consist of styrene, n-butyl acrylate, and methacrylic acid (SBM) monodisperse co-polymer binder materials and this $TiO_2$ pastes were applied of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). The photoanodes were characterized by ATR-Fourier Transform spectrometer, X-ray diffraction (XRD) and morphology was investigated by field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM). The photoelectrochemical properties of the thin films and the performance of DSSCs were measured by photovoltaic-current density, AC impedance and monochromatic incident photon-to-current conversion efficiency (IPCE). DSSC based on the 100nm size co-polymer binder was obtained conversion efficiency of 8.1% under irradiation of AM 1.5(100 $mWcm^2$).

• Proceedings of the Polymer Society of Korea Conference
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• 2006.10a
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• pp.206-206
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• 2006

Polymer induced turbulent drag reduction achieved by adding minute amounts of high molecular weight DNAs in aqueous solution was investigated using a rotating disk apparatus. The DNAs in this study include ${\lambda}-DNA$ and calf-thymus (CT) DNA. By putting emphasis on effect of CT-DNA concentration, its DR characteristics were compared with that of ${\lambda}-DNA$ possessing monodisperse molecular weight characteristics based on both DR efficiency and a mechanical degradation under turbulence. The DNA chains having much higher molecular size than that of ${\lambda}-DNA$ are observed to be more susceptible to mechanical degradation in a turbulent flow. This result was verified via electrophoresis. Furthermore, the coil to globule phase transition of DNA was also investigated under a turbulent flow.

• Macromolecular Research
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.18-23
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• 2002

We theoretically consider blends of two monodisperse one-end-functionalized homopolymers (denoted by A and B) capable of forming clusters between functional groups (stickers) using weak segregation theory. In this model system resulting molecular architectures via clustering resemble star copolymers having many A- and B-arms. Minimizing the total free energy with respect the cluster distribution, the equilibrium distribution of clusters is obtained and used for RPA (Random Phase Approximation) equations as input. For the case that polymers are functionalized by only one kind of sticker, the phase diagrams show that the associations promote the macrophase separation. When there is strong affinity between stickers belonging to the different polymer species, on the other hand, the phase diagram show a suppression of the macrophase separation at the range of high temperature regime, as well as the phase coexistence between a disordered and a mesoscopic phase at the relatively lower temperatures.

• Proceedings of the Polymer Society of Korea Conference
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• 2006.10a
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• pp.5-6
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• 2006

Molecular motion at the surface of monodisperse polystyrene (PS) films with various chain end groups was studied by scanning probe microscopy. Surface glass transition temperature ($T_{g^s}$) of the PS films was much lower than the corresponding bulk value. And, the magnitude of $T_{g^s}$ was strongly dependent on chain end chemistry. This result can be explained in terms of the chain end concentration at the surface. Time-temperature superposition principle was applied to rheological analysis at the surface. The apparent activation energy of the surface ${\alpha}_{a}$-relaxation process was approximately a half of that for the bulk sample. This result clearly indicates that the cooperativity for the surface segmental motion was reduced in comparison with that in the bulk region.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.159-166
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• 2012

We have introduced the Pickering emulsion systems to generate novel confining geometries for the selforganization of monodisperse polymer microspheres using nanoparticle-stabilized emulsion droplets encapsulating the building block particles. Then, through the slow evaporation of emulsion phases by heating, these microspheres were packed into regular polyhedral colloidal clusters covered with nanoparticle-stabilizers made of silica. Furthermore, polymer composite colloidal clusters were burnt out leaving nonspherical hollow micro-particles, in which the configurations of the cluster structure were preserved during calcination. The selfassembled porous architectures in this study will be potentially useful in various applications such as novel building block particles or supporting materials for catalysis or gas adsorption.