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Adaptive Morphology of Surface‐Segregated Micelles Synthesized from Polymerization‐Induced Self‐Assembly Co‐Mediated by a Binary Mixture of Macro‐RAFT Agents
Author(s) -
Zhang Tongtong,
Zhan Chengdong,
Huang Xiangyue,
Huang Yinghui,
Zong Lina,
Hong Liangzhi,
Ngai To
Publication year - 2021
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.202100128
Subject(s) - raft , chain transfer , micelle , polymerization , materials science , reversible addition−fragmentation chain transfer polymerization , methacrylate , polymer chemistry , polymer , polystyrene , vesicle , copolymer , chemical engineering , polydimethylsiloxane , membrane , radical polymerization , chemistry , nanotechnology , organic chemistry , aqueous solution , engineering , composite material , biochemistry
Surface‐segregated micelles (SSMs) have shown potential applications in drug delivery, bioimaging, and Pickering emulsions due to their adaptive characteristics. A diverse set of SSMs are prepared by reversible addition–fragmentation transfer (RAFT)‐mediated polymerization‐induced self‐assembly (PISA). However, the obtained self‐assembled structures are mostly limited to spherical forms, and SSMs with a hierarchical structure are not yet prepared. In this study, SSMs with various hierarchical structures are generated by the dispersion polymerization of benzyl methacrylate (BzMA) co‐mediated by a binary mixture of poly(2‐(dimethylamino)ethyl methacrylate) and polydimethylsiloxane as macromolecular chain‐transfer agents (macro‐CTAs). The obtained structures include cylinders, vesicles, large compound micelles, and bundles of hoops. The morphological evolution of these structures and vesicle size can be readily tuned by varying the composition of the binary mixture of macro‐CTAs. This study expands the scope of RAFT‐mediated PISA for synthesizing well‐defined polymer nano‐objects with higher‐order morphologies for various applications.