Synthesis of Microemulsion-based nanostructures and their connection to HLD-NAC predicted morphology

Wednesday, May 1, 2024

9:26 AM – 9:43 AM EDT

Room: 518b

Presenting Author(s)

RS

Rania Sakr

MASc candidate
University of Toronto, Canada

Co-Author(s)

KE

Kavya Easwar

Meng candidate
University of Toronto, Canada
Brandon Cordeiro

MASc, Research Assistant
University of Toronto, ON, Canada
Edgar J. Acosta, PhD

Professor
University of Toronto
Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Abstract: Microemulsions have been used as nano-sized reactor to synthesize nano-structured polymers and nanoparticles for more than 40 years. The biggest issue has always been that the size of the nanostructure features tend to be larger than the size of the features in the original microemulsion templates. In this review, we present data comparing the HLD-NAC predicted size of the nanostructured features for various precursor microemulsions reported in the literature vs. the experimental features obtained by various authors, including some of our own work. We will report on how polymerization strategies have advanced to a point that bicontinuous polymers can be obtained with sizes that are very close to those of the parent microemulsion. However, the same is yet to be accomplished with the synthesis of inorganic nanoparticles. Potential avenues to improve these features will be discussed.