Abstract
We present a facile method to fabricate polymer thin films with tens of nanometers thickness and several micrometers size (also called "microdiscs" herein) by applying phase separation of polymer blend. A water-soluble supporting layer is employed to obtain a freestanding microdisc suspension. Owing to their miniaturized size, microdiscs can be injected through a syringe needle. Herein, poly(d,l-lactic acid) microdiscs were fabricated with various thicknesses and sizes, in the range from ca. 10 to 60 nm and from ca. 1.0 to 10.0 μm, respectively. Magnetic nanoparticles were deposited on polymer microdiscs with a surface coating method. The magnetic manipulation of microdiscs in a liquid environment under an external magnetic field was achieved with controllable velocity by adjusting the microdisc dimensions and the loading amount of magnetic components. Such biocompatible polymer microdiscs are expected to serve as injectable vehicles for targeted drug delivery.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 16296-16302 |
| Number of pages | 7 |
| Journal | ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces |
| Volume | 8 |
| Issue number | 25 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 2016 Jun 29 |
Keywords
- freestanding
- magnetic manipulation
- microdisc
- phase separation
- polymer blend
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Materials Science(all)