pH-Sensitive Micelles Formed by Interchain Hydrogen Bonding of Poly(methacrylic acid)-block-Poly(ethylene oxide) Copolymers

✍ Scribed by Čestmír Koňák; Marián Sedlák

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2007
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 176 KB
• Volume: 208
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1022-1352
• DOI: 10.1002/macp.200700214

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

pH‐sensitive micelles formed by interchain hydrogen bonding of poly(methacrylic acid)‐block‐poly(ethylene oxide) copolymers were prepared and investigated at pH < 5. Both $\overline M _{\rm w}$ and R~h~ of the micelles increase with decreasing pH of the solution, displaying an asymptotic tendency at low pH values. The observed micelles are well‐defined nanoparticles with narrow size distributions (polydispersity Δ__R__~h~/R~h~ ≤ 0.05) comparable with regular diblock copolymer micelles. The CMCs occur slightly below c = 1 × 10^−4^ g · mL^−1^. The micelles are negatively charged and their time stability is lower than that of regular copolymer micelles based purely on hydrophobic interactions.

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