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Synthesis of Colloidal SU‐8 Polymer Rods Using Sonication
Author(s) -
FernándezRico Carla,
Yanagishima Taiki,
Curran Arran,
Aarts Dirk G. A. L.,
Dullens Roel P. A.
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
advanced materials
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 10.707
H-Index - 527
eISSN - 1521-4095
pISSN - 0935-9648
DOI - 10.1002/adma.201807514
Subject(s) - rod , materials science , colloid , polymer , optical tweezers , shearing (physics) , colloidal crystal , liquid crystal , isotropy , optical microscope , emulsion , optics , nanotechnology , chemical engineering , composite material , scanning electron microscope , medicine , alternative medicine , physics , optoelectronics , pathology , engineering
The bulk synthesis of fluorescent colloidal SU‐8 polymer rods with tunable dimensions is described. The colloidal SU‐8 rods are prepared by shearing an emulsion of SU‐8 polymer droplets and then exposing the resulting non‐Brownian rods to ultrasonic waves, which breaks them into colloidal rods with typical lengths of 3.5–10 µm and diameters of 0.4–1 µm. The rods are stable in both aqueous and apolar solvents, and by varying the composition of apolar solvent mixtures both the difference in refractive index and mass density between particles and solvent can be independently controlled. Consequently, these colloidal SU‐8 rods can be used in both 3D confocal microscopy and optical trapping experiments while carefully tuning the effect of gravity. This is demonstrated by using confocal microscopy to image the liquid crystalline phases and the isotropic–nematic interface formed by the colloidal SU‐8 rods and by optically trapping single rods in water. Finally, the simultaneous confocal imaging and optical manipulation of multiple SU‐8 rods in the isotropic phase is shown.