Styrene/maleic anhydride macro-RAFT-mediated encapsulation

Luo et al. have published a method for the encapsulation of oil droplets by a polymer shell to form nanosized liquid-filled particles. They use a water-soluble styrene-maleic anhydride copolymer that carries a thiocarbonyl thio end-group. This end-group is able to induce reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT)-mediated polymerization, which leads to a miniemulsion polymerization-like system. Here the polymerization is confined to the outer shell of a droplet/particle. Consequently, monomer is depleted from the centre of the particle, which leaves a liquid core surrounded by a polymer shell. The technique seems robust and opens up new pathways to nanostructured materials.