Direct preparation of two-dimensional platelets from polymers enabled by accelerated seed formation

Abstract

Crystallization-driven self-assembly (CDSA) presents a facile method to access well-defined nanostructures. However, nanostructure preparation via CDSA has been constrained by prolonged processing time and limited throughput, primarily due to seed preparation and confinement to small batch scales. In turn, this limits the potential to scale up CDSA to enable application of the resultant particles. Here we report a rapid seed preparation method that drives uniform seed micelle formation by supersaturating polymer solutions in a flow system. This leads to a large reduction in processing time, from a week down to minutes. Importantly, the modular flow cascade applied can integrate both seed preparation and living CDSA, enabling end-to-end production of nanostructures directly from polymers in 3 min. The attained throughput of 132 mg h−1 surpasses that of other reported methods by orders of magnitude and, in turn, provides a step forward for the scaling-up of precision nanomaterials. (Figure presented.)