Interfacial Microcompartmentalization by Kinetic Control of Selective Interfacial Accumulation

Qian Liu; Zhenyu Yuan; Meng Zhao; Max Huisman; Gido Drewes; Tomasz Piskorz; Serhii Mytnyk; Ger J M Koper; Eduardo Mendes; Jan H van Esch

doi:10.1002/anie.202009701

Interfacial Microcompartmentalization by Kinetic Control of Selective Interfacial Accumulation

Angew Chem Int Ed Engl. 2020 Dec 21;59(52):23748-23754. doi: 10.1002/anie.202009701. Epub 2020 Oct 25.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Department of Chemical Engineering, Delft University of Technology, van der Maasweg 9, Delft, 2629 HZ, The Netherlands.
² Department of Chemical Engineering, East China University of Science and Technology, Meilong 130, Shanghai, 200237, P. R. China.
³ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Delft University of Technology, Mekelweg 2, Delft, 2628 CD, The Netherlands.

Abstract

Reported here is a 2D, interfacial microcompartmentalization strategy governed by 3D phase separation. In aqueous polyethylene glycol (PEG) solutions doped with biotinylated polymers, the polymers spontaneously accumulate in the interfacial layer between the oil-surfactant-water interface and the adjacent polymer phase. In aqueous two-phase systems, these polymers first accumulated in the interfacial layer separating two polymer solutions and then selectively migrated to the oil-PEG interfacial layer. By using polymers with varying photopolymerizable groups and crosslinking rates, kinetic control and capture of spatial organisation in a variety of compartmentalized macroscopic structures, without the need of creating barrier layers, was achieved. This selective interfacial accumulation provides an extension of 3D phase separation towards synthetic compartmentalization, and is also relevant for understanding intracellular organisation.

Keywords: interfaces; kinetics; microparticles; photochemistry; polymers.