Gas phase water-initiated droplet-assisted growth and shaping (DAGS) synthesis of poly(ethyl cyanoacrylate) (PECA) nanostructures

Abstract

The DAGS bottom-up method employs water nanodroplets as ‘templates’ for the fabrication of diverse 1D polymeric nanostructures. Herein, we successfully applied this approach in the gas phase to obtain poly(ethyl cyanoacrylate) nanofibres (PECA-NF) with a diameter ranging from 137 to 721 nm. Their 1D growth was unveiled using energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX).