Polymerization-Induced Self-Assembly is a dispersion polymerisation in which the growing chain turns insoluble at a critical length and assembles into a particle while it grows. The process gives a block copolymer particle at a high solids content, because the monomer itself is the solvent of the first block. A reversible-deactivation radical route keeps the chain growing, and the assembly can be run in water or in an alcohol [1]. The morphology moves from a sphere to a worm and then to a vesicle as the stabiliser block shortens, and that sequence is now predictable enough to serve as a design tool [2]. A crystallisation-driven variant nucleates the assembly on a crystalline core, and the rod that forms is longer and more uniform than the sphere [3]. A photocontrolled route starts and stops the polymerisation with light, so the assembly can be frozen at an intermediate state [4]. When the same chemistry is compared with a miniemulsion, the nucleation route decides whether a particle or a monomer droplet is the site of the assembly [5].
- dispersion polymerization
- block copolymer
- self-assembly
- raft polymerization
- nanoparticle morphology
- worm-like micelle
- vesicle formation
Supramolecular Self-Assembly in Materials·Biomaterials·Materials Science·Physical Sciences
References
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- Liu, C.; Hong, C.Y.; Pan, C.Y. Polymerization techniques in polymerization-induced self-assembly (PISA). Polymer Chemistry 2020, 11, 3673-3689. [CrossRef]
- Nie, J.; Zhao, J.; Li, L.; Zhou, T.; Guerin, G. Crystallization‐Driven Self‐Assembly‐ Substrated ‐Polymerization‐Induced Self‐Assembly (CDSA‐ s ‐PISA). Toward the Next Generation of Supercarriers.. Angewandte Chemie 2025, 137, e202511515. [CrossRef]
- Li, H.; Xu, Q.; Xu, X.; Zhang, L.; Cheng, Z.; Zhu, X. One-Step Photocontrolled Polymerization-Induced Self-Assembly (Photo-PISA) by Using In Situ Bromine-Iodine Transformation Reversible-Deactivation Radical Polymerization. Polymers 2020, 12, 150. [CrossRef]
- Kim, H.J.; Ishizuka, F.; Chatani, S.; Niino, H.; Zetterlund, P.B. Aqueous RAFT polymerization-induced self-assembly (PISA): amphiphilic macroRAFT self-assembly vs. monomer droplet nucleation (miniemulsion polymerization). Polymer Chemistry 2023, 14, 687-696. [CrossRef]