LAUSR

Polymer crystalsomes are a class of hollow crystalline polymer nanoparticles with shells formed by single crystals with broken translational symmetry. They have shown intriguing mechanical, thermal, and biomedical properties associated with spherical packing. Previously reported crystalsomes are formed by quasi-two-dimensional lamellae which can readily tile on a spherical surface. In this work, we report the formation of polymer crystalsomes formed by one-dimensional (1D) polymer crystals. Poly (3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) was chosen as the model polymer because of its 1D growth habit. P3HT crystalsomes were successfully fabricated using a miniemulsion solution crystallization method, as confirmed by scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy. X-ray diffraction (XRD) and selected area electron diffraction experiments confirmed that P3HT crystallized into a Form I crystal structure. XRD, differential scanning calorimetry and UV-Vis results revealed curvature-dependent structural, thermal, and electrooptical properties. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.