Abstract
Polymer particles have been widely used in a variety of coating materials, ink, adhesive additive and cosmetics. Application to these technologies needs to provide precise control of particles size. In this study, we prepared size-controlled emulsion droplets of water-insoluble monomer (methyl methacrylate, MMA) in aqueous media using tandem acoustic emulsification without surfactants. As a result, we successfully obtained a highly clear and transparent emulsified aqueous solution containing MMA droplets with diameters of a few tens of nanometers using tandem acoustic emulsification. In addition, monodisperse PMMA fine particles were obtained by polymerization from the MMA emulsified solution. Finally, by using the fluidic cell methods, we fabricated colloidal crystal films composed of size-controlled PMMA nanoparticles prepared by using tandem acoustic emulsification. These colloidal crystal films exhibited self-assembly of PMMA nanoparticles into ordered three-dimensional structures and beautiful structural colors. Size-controlled polymer nanoparticles prepared by tandem acoustic emulsification can be applied to structural color materials.
