Luminescent Elastomeric Janus Particles Produced by Dripping and Microfluidics Technique
F.L. Faita, M.H. Godinho and I.H. Bechtold
Janus particles have been produced from urethane/urea elastomers spheres [1]. Long labyrinthine corrugations (“wrinkles”) can appear on half of the irradiate surface spheres and due to this a hydrophobic/hydrophilic ("wrinkles/smooth") character can be generated [1, 2]. The luminescence properties of the Janus particles are very attractive opening new horizons for their application. In present work we mixed Tris(8-hydroxyquinolinato)aluminium (Alq3) with urea/urethane elastomers in order to produce new luminescent Janus particles with tunable surface properties by dripping and microfluidics method. Thus, these techniques allow to obtain millimetric and micrometric sized spheres, respectively. It was found that the corrugation characteristics were dependent upon Alq3 amount and UV irradiation time exposure. We determine de best parameters to produce milimetric and micrometric elastomeric spheres and tuning to Janus particles form. The UV irradiation time and Alq3 dopant concentration was studied by atomic force microscopy (AFM). The best parameters of the microfluidics technique result on spheres with around 50 micrometer on diameter. These new spherical particles are been used by us as dyes to track defects on membranes constitute by hexagonal compact structures made from layers by of non and luminescent spheres.
Keywords: Synthetic elastomer, Janus particles, Luminescent materials.
[1] A. C. Trindade, J. P. Canejo, L. F. V. Pinto, P. Patrício, P. Brogueira, P. I. C. Teixeira and M. H. Godinho, Macromolecules 2011, 44, 2220–2228.
[2] D. J. Adams, S. Adams, J. Melrose, A. C. Weaver, Colloids and Surfaces A: Physicochem. Eng. Aspects 317 (2008) 360–365.
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