Fabrication of Multicompartment Particles via Sequential Micromolding Method

In this paper, we present a fabrication method of polymeric multicompartment particles via a sequential micromolding process composed of injection of photocurable solution, evaporation of volatile solvent, and photo-polymerization. Depending on the concentration of volatile solvent in photocurable solution, the volume fraction of the multicompartment particles can be controlled. Also, the repetition of the sequential micromolding process with controlled composition of photocurable solution provides controlling the number of compartment in the particles. Based on this principle, we can fabricate single particles, Janus particles and triblock particles with desired fraction of the compartment. In addition, the multicompartment particles are able to be applicable for barcode particles embedding fluorescent dyes at each compartment. The barcode particles encode information about their specific compositions and enable simple identification. These sequential micromolding method for multicompartment particles has several advantages including easy, fast, and cost effective process. We envision that the multicompartment particles have various applications such as drug storage, delivery supporters, biosensors, and advanced materials for inducing highly selective adsorption-desorption.