| Catanionic vesicles are formed spontaneously from mixtures of cationic and anionic surfactants in water. Vesicles in general have received attention due to their ability to compartmentalize the aqueous domain over sub-micron length scales. Applications of vesicles range from agriculture to sustained and/or targeted release of pharmaceuticals. These structures have recently been used as templates from which to produce hollow polymer spheres.; We have successfully polymerized hydrophobic monomers within the bilayer of catanionic vesicles to produce hollow polymeric spheres with a diameter of 100 nm. These hollow spheres are robust and can be completely dried and re-suspended in water without any loss of microstructure. Hollow silica particles were also created using a similar synthetic approach. Small-angle neutron scattering (SANS), quasi-elastic light scattering (QELS), and cryogenic transmission electron microscopy (Cryo TEM) were used to characterize the hollow nanoparticles. |
