Byard, Sarah J., O'brien, Cate T., Derry, Matthew J., Williams, Mark, Mykhaylyk, Oleksandr O., Blanazs, Adam and Armes, Steven P. (2020). Unique aqueous self-assembly behavior of a thermoresponsive diblock copolymer. Chemical Science, 11 (2), pp. 396-402.
Abstract
It is well-recognized that block copolymer self-assembly in solution typically produces spheres, worms or vesicles, with the relative volume fraction of each block dictating the copolymer morphology. Stimulus-responsive diblock copolymers that can undergo either sphere/worm or vesicle/worm transitions are also well-documented. Herein we report a new amphiphilic diblock copolymer that can form spheres, worms, vesicles or lamellae in aqueous solution. Such self-assembly behavior is unprecedented for a single diblock copolymer of fixed composition yet is achieved simply by raising the solution temperature from 1 °C (spheres) to 25 °C (worms) to 50 °C (vesicles) to 70 °C (lamellae). Heating increases the degree of hydration (and hence the effective volume fraction) of the core-forming block, with this parameter being solely responsible for driving the sphere-to-worm, worm-to-vesicle and vesicle-to-lamellae transitions. The first two transitions exhibit excellent reversibility but the vesicle-to-lamellae transition exhibits hysteresis on cooling. This new thermoresponsive diblock copolymer provides a useful model for studying such morphological transitions and is likely to be of significant interest for theoretical studies.
Publication DOI: | https://doi.org/10.1039/C9SC04197D |
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Divisions: | College of Engineering & Physical Sciences College of Engineering & Physical Sciences > School of Infrastructure and Sustainable Engineering > Chemical Engineering & Applied Chemistry College of Engineering & Physical Sciences > Aston Polymer Research Group |
Additional Information: | This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported Licence. |
Uncontrolled Keywords: | General Chemistry |
Publication ISSN: | 2041-6539 |
Last Modified: | 30 Sep 2024 12:19 |
Date Deposited: | 07 Jan 2020 13:19 |
Full Text Link: | |
Related URLs: |
https://pubs.rs ... 7D#!divAbstract
(Publisher URL) http://www.scop ... tnerID=8YFLogxK (Scopus URL) |
PURE Output Type: | Article |
Published Date: | 2020-01-14 |
Published Online Date: | 2019-11-12 |
Accepted Date: | 2019-11-11 |
Authors: |
Byard, Sarah J.
O'brien, Cate T. Derry, Matthew J. ( 0000-0001-5010-6725) Williams, Mark Mykhaylyk, Oleksandr O. Blanazs, Adam Armes, Steven P. |