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pH‐Sensitive Micelles Formed by Interchain Hydrogen Bonding of Poly(methacrylic acid)‐ block ‐Poly(ethylene oxide) Copolymers
Author(s) -
Koňák Čestmír,
Sedlák Marián
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
macromolecular chemistry and physics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.57
H-Index - 112
eISSN - 1521-3935
pISSN - 1022-1352
DOI - 10.1002/macp.200700214
Subject(s) - micelle , copolymer , ethylene oxide , methacrylic acid , hydrogen bond , dispersity , polymer chemistry , poly(methacrylic acid) , oxide , chemistry , materials science , chemical engineering , organic chemistry , molecule , polymer , aqueous solution , engineering
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.