Cross-linked polyelectrolyte microspheres: preparation and new insights into electro-surface properties.

Polyelectrolyte microspheres find applications in many fields such as ion exchange columns, fuel cell membranes, and catalysis, to name a few. Synthesis of these microspheres by inverse emulsion polymerization offers various advantages due to the increased specific surface area and high surface charge density. The surface charge density of the obtained polyelectrolyte microspheres is a hundred times higher than that of either particles obtained by dispersion copolymerization of styrene and styrenesulfonic acid or sulfonated microspheres.

Microfluidic synthesis of monodisperse porous polystyrene microspheres for sorption of bovine serum albumin.

Droplet microfluidics offers exquisite control over the flows of multiple fluids in micro-scale, enabling fabrication of advanced microspheres with precisely tuneable structures. The main goal of this work was to design monodispersed carboxylated polystyrene microspheres with a developed pore structure (a specific surface area more than 200 m/g) using microfluidic technology. We investigated the influence of the composition of monomer phase for the stable formation of droplets.