# Recent Advances in the Preparation of Block Copolymer Colloids and Porous Hydrogels Mediated by Emulsion Droplets

## TL;DR

This review discusses how emulsions are used to create functional materials like block copolymer colloids and porous hydrogels with potential uses in drug delivery and sensing.

## Contribution

The paper highlights recent strategies for engineering emulsions to design multifunctional polymeric materials with tailored properties.

## Key findings

- High-quality, uniform emulsion droplets can be generated for precise material fabrication.
- Stimulus-responsive functionalities can be pre-engineered into polymers for targeted applications.
- Emulsion-templated methods enable the creation of porous hydrogels and functional gels with controlled structures.

## Abstract

The versatility of emulsions as templates for fabricating functional materials has garnered significant attention in recent decades. Emulsions with tailored geometries provide a powerful platform for designing and synthesizing polymeric materials with diverse functionalities. This review summarizes recent advances in emulsion-mediated fabrication of block copolymer (BCP) functional colloids and emulsion-templated construction of gel emulsion and porous hydrogels. Key topics include the generation of high-quality, uniform emulsion droplets, control over the shape and internal nanostructure of BCP colloids, and strategies for constructing polymeric gels and other porous functional materials using gel emulsion as templates. Furthermore, the intrinsic properties of polymers can be pre-engineered with specific stimulus-responsive functionalities prior to the fabrication of polymeric microparticles or porous hydrogels, thus imparting novel and targeted functionalities to the resulting assemblies and porous networks. This study can help in developing crucial strategies and in identifying pathways for the rational design of novel multifunctional materials with applications in drug delivery, sensing, and catalysis.