Effect of contact angle on the morphology of different polymer-solvent systems produced by AAO templates

Nanostructured polymers can be used in a variety of applications including drug delivery, sensors, MRI contrasting and imaging agents. Template assisted fabrication is a simple and effective method to produce various nanomorphologies by controlling the polymer, solvent and template characteristics. In this contribution, the importance of the surface interactions between the solution and the template in controlling the morphology of the nanostrucuctures has been highlighted. Contact angle between various biopolymer solutions and the template have been determined. The morphology of the resulting nanostructure has been related to the measured contact angles. It is generally observed that nanorods are produced at low contact angles and elongated nanotubes are produced at high contact angles. Thus the desired nanomorphology for a given medical application can be obtained by controlling the contact angle.