Polymers Nano Materials

Polymers Nano Materials List

Polymers nano materials refer to polymers of at least one-dimensional size up to 100 nm. Polymers nano materials have great potential for intelligence, adaptability and repairability fields, enabling precise control of structures from molecules to macro-solids. In addition, some polymers nano materials with special structures such as block copolymers, hyperbranched polymers and dendrimers can form various ordered structures through self-assembly or layer-by-layer assembly, which have broad application prospects in the field of microelectronics. Therefore, with the advantages of unique characteristics and excellent properties, polymers nano materials have attracted more and more attentions.

Applications:

• Biomedical field: Polymers nano materials can be used to design drug delivery systems, which are widely used in biomedical fields. Polymers nano materials used for drug delivery have many advantages. Because of their small size, polymers nano materials can bring drugs into cells easily, and the potency of drugs can be improved. Furthermore, polymers nano materials have a relatively large molecular weight, which can be used as a drug carrier to allow drugs to stay in the lesion site for a longer time. In addition, drugs are usually encapsulated in polymers nano materials, which can also protect drugs from being metabolized in advance. Moreover, polymers nano materials can be used as drug-controlled release carriers with both targeting and stimulus responsiveness.

Figure 1. An example of drug delivery system designed by polymers nano materials.

• The others: Polymers nano materials are also widely used in other fields, including composite materials field, sensors field, battery materials field, electronic and optical equipment field, filtration materials field and the others. When polymers nano materials used as reinforcement in composite materials field, the mechanical properties of the materials can be greatly improved.

Classification:

According to the morphology, polymers nano materials can be divided into polymer nanoparticles, polymer nano-micelles, polymer nanofibers and the others.

• Polymer nanoparticles: Polymer nanoparticles are much smaller than red blood cells and can move freely in the blood. Therefore, drugs or imaging agents can be loaded in polymer nanoparticles for drug delivery and disease diagnosis, which has important applications in the biomedical field.
• Polymer nanofibers: The diameter of polymer nanofibers is between 1 nm and 100 nm. The preparation methods of polymer nanofibers include template synthesis, phase separation, self-assembly, electrospinning and the others. Among them, electrospinning is an effective method to prepare polymer nanofibers directly and continuously.

Figure 2. Polymer nanofibers prepared by electrospinning.

• Polymer nano-micelles: Polymer nano-micelles are generally formed by self-assembly of amphiphilic block copolymers in water-based media, and have a core-shell structure with a hydrophobic core and a hydrophilic shell, which is suitable to be used as a drug carrier.
• The others: In addition to the above mentioned, polymers nano materials also include polymer nanotubes, polymer nanorods and the others.

References

1. Sngeetaha, Krishnamurthy, Rajendran, et al. Lipid-coated polymeric nanoparticles for cancer drug delivery[J]. Biomaterials science, 2015.
2. Hiroki N, Yusuke H, Shingo M, et al. A Pendulum-Like Motion of Nanofiber Gel Actuator Synchronized with External Periodic pH Oscillation[J]. Polymers, 2011, 3(4):405-412.