Compared to rigid microspheres that consist, for example, of polystyrene or silica, soft and deformable elastomer microspheres can be used to generate colorless transparent films upon evaporating the solvent from microsphere-containing dispersions. To obtain tough films, a post-polymerization reaction to crosslink the microspheres is usually necessary, which requires extra additives during the drying process. This restriction renders this film-formation technology complex and rather unsuitable for applications in which impurities are undesirable. In the present study, it is demonstrated that tough elastomer microspheres that are crosslinked with rotaxanes can form tough bulk films upon evaporation of water from microsphere dispersions, so that post-polymerization reactions are not required. The results of this study should thus lead to new applications including coatings for biomaterials that need complete removal of all impurities from the materials prior to use.
Keywords: elastomer microspheres; mini-emulsions; polymerization; rotaxane structure; tough materials.
© 2017 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.