Micelles Formed by Cylindrical Brush-Coil Block Copolymers

✍ Scribed by Nawel Khelfallah; Nikhil Gunari; Karl Fischer; Giorgos Gkogkas; Nikos Hadjichristidis; Manfred Schmidt

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2005
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 174 KB
• Volume: 26
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1022-1336
• DOI: 10.1002/marc.200500512

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

Summary: Amphiphilic cylindrical brush‐coil block copolymers consisting of a polystyrene coil and a cylindrical brush block with poly(acrylic acid) side chains are prepared by ATRP of t‐butylacrylate from a block comacroinitiator. Upon acidolysis of the poly(t‐butylacrylate), water‐soluble polymers were obtained that were observed to form micelles consisting of 4–5 block copolymers on average in aqueous solution. The star‐like nature of such micelles was clearly visualized by scanning force microscopy.

Schematic of coil‐cylindrical brush block copolymer PS‐b‐(P^i^BEMA‐g‐PAA), its AFM image clearly showing the main chain and the PAA corona of the cylindrical brush block.

magnified imageSchematic of coil‐cylindrical brush block copolymer PS‐b‐(P^i^BEMA‐g‐PAA), its AFM image clearly showing the main chain and the PAA corona of the cylindrical brush block.