Facile fabrication, morphology control, and modification of polymeric yolk-shell microspheres

Yolk-shell smart polymer microgels and their hybrids: fundamentals and applications

Yolk-shell microgels and their hybrids have attained great importance in modern-day research owing to their captivating features and potential uses. This manuscript provides the strategies for preparation, classification, properties and current applications of yolk-shell microgels and their hybrids. Some of the yolk-shell microgels and their hybrids are identified as smart polymer yolk-shell microgels and smart hybrid microgels, respectively, as they react to changes in particular environmental stimuli such as pH, temperature and ionic strength of the medium. This unique behavior makes them a perfect candidate for utilization in drug delivery, selective catalysis, adsorption of metal ions, nanoreactors and many other fields. This review demonstrates the contemporary progress along with suggestions and future perspectives for further research in this specific field.

A novel approach toward Snowman-like polymer/SiO2 hybrid nanoparticles via gas-driving

For the first time, we report an interesting transition from conventional core-shell polymer/SiO2 particles to self-stable snowman-like particles, which can be achieved by adding a low-boiling point oil-soluble monomer because the volatile monomer not only plays a lubrication role, but also acts as a gas "motor" to drive the silica precursor polycondensate migration.

Self-assembly of strawberry-like organic–inorganic hybrid particle clusters with directionally distributed bimetal and facile transformation of the core and corona

Controllable structure of organic–inorganic hybrid particle clusters were successfully fabricated by self-assembly which derived from the strong interaction between carboxyl groups of the organic particles and amino groups of the inorganic particles.