Formation of crew-cut aggregates of various morphologies from amphiphilic block copolymers in solution

✍ Scribed by Lifeng Zhang; Adi Eisenberg

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1998
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 442 KB
• Volume: 9
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1042-7147
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1099-1581(1998100)9:10/11<677::aid-pat845>3.0.co;2-#

✦ Synopsis

Crew-cut micelle-like aggregates represent a new type of aggregate formed in solution by the self-assembly of highly asymmetric amphiphilic block copolymers. The aggregates are termed crew-cut because the dimensions of the core are bigger than those of the corona. They are prepared by first dissolving copolymers, such as polystyrene-b-poly(acrylic acid), in a common solvent, e.g. dimethylformamide (DMF), and then adding water to the solution to induce aggregation of the polystyrene segments. Since the first description of an experimental study of spherical crew-cut micelles in 1994, over 20 papers have appeared in the literature. One of the most noteworthy phenomena seen in the crew-cut aggregate systems is the existence of multiple morphologies. These include spheres, rods, vesicles, lamellae, large compound vesicles, large compound micelles and several other structures. This paper presents an overview of the phenomenon, and a description of the qualitative