Understanding and controlling the interfacial/surface properties have contributed to the development of adhesion science and technology. Functional soft nanomaterials including smart particles, films, and self-assemblies have been developed using interfacial chemistry which is the basis of adhesion science. We have prepared a variety of smart soft nanomaterials using interfacial chemistry. By utilizing the liquid-liquid interfacial reaction, we have designed a variety of stimuli-responsive soft nanoparticles including capsules and microgels. We have synthesized the water-soluble block copolymer composed of zwitterionic polymer and side-chain poly(ethylene glycol)(PEG)polymer blocks that acted as an emulsifier in a water-chloroform two-phase system because zwitterionic polymer and side-chain PEG polymer blocks distributed to water and chloroform phase, respectively, resulting in the stabilization of a water-chloroform interface. The interfacial polymerization from the water-soluble PMPC-b-POEGMA emulsifier provided the reductively responsive nanocapsules and temperature-responsive core-shell microgels. By utilizing the soap-free emulsion polymerization, we have designed a variety of stimuli-responsive particles including pH/reduction dual stimuli-responsive microgel having tertiary amino groups and disulfide cross-links, glucose-responsive microgels having saccharide-lectin complex cross-links, and photo-responsive particles having photo-dimerizable groups. By utilizing the solidliquid interfacial polymerization, the stimuli-responsive gel films containing molecular binding sites were fabricated on the surface of the surface plasmon resonance sensor chip by molecular imprinting. Temperatureresponsive polymer micelles were prepared by self-assembling amphiphilic liquid crystalline polymer(LCP),which undergoes a liquid crystalline-isotropic phase transition at body temperature. The LCP micelles regulated drug release reversibly in response to temperature without dissociation. This paper highlights our recent results on the preparation of functional soft nanomaterials based on interfacial chemistry.
The various composites of hydrophobized cellulose nanofiber(CNF)/thermoplastic polyurethane elastomer(TPU)were prepared, using polyoxytetramethylene glycol(PTMG)containing a small amount of CNF as the soft component, 4,4’-diphenylmethane diisocyanate(MDI)as a diisocyanate and 1,4-butanediol(BD)as a chain extender. The molar ratio of PTMG/MDI/BD was 1/2/1, the preparation of composites were carried out by one-shot method and prepolymer method in bulk polymerization, respectively. As a result of evaluating the tensile physical properties and higher-order structure of the obtained composites, it was found that the tensile strength increased significantly in all CNF-added composites, and the more advanced micro phase separation structure was observed in the composites prepared by oneshot method. In addition, we also found that the reaction between the hydroxyl groups remaining in the hydrophobized CNF and the isocyanate groups has a major influence on this factor.