Polymeric Janus Particles

Abstract

Since de Gennes’ Nobel lecture in 1991, in which he coined the term “Janus grains”, research into asymmetric particles has boomed. Macroscopic, microscopic and nanoscopic particles have been prepared in which certain parts of their surface differ in chemical composition, polarity, color, or any other property. Spherical, cylindrical, disc-like, snowman-, hamburger-, and raspberry-like structures have been synthesized from organic or inorganic materials or even as hybrids of both. Synthetic strategies towards such particles vary greatly from simple polymer mixtures to the bulk self-assembly of sophisticated terpolymers to immobilization methods of symmetric particles. Polymeric Janus particles are particularly promising, as they can often be prepared cheaply and sometimes even on larger scales.