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Photoinduced Fusion of Micro‐Vesicles Self‐Assembled from Azobenzene‐Containing Amphiphilic Diblock Copolymers
Author(s) -
Su Wei,
Luo Yanhua,
Yan Qing,
Wu Si,
Han Kuo,
Zhang Qijin,
Gu Yongqiang,
Li Yinmei
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
macromolecular rapid communications
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.348
H-Index - 154
eISSN - 1521-3927
pISSN - 1022-1336
DOI - 10.1002/marc.200700077
Subject(s) - azobenzene , amphiphile , vesicle , copolymer , raft , chain transfer , polymer chemistry , fusion , materials science , polymerization , photochemistry , chemistry , radical polymerization , membrane , polymer , philosophy , composite material , biochemistry , linguistics
Poly( N ‐isopropylacrylamide)‐ block ‐poly{6‐[4‐(4‐methylphenyl‐azo) phenoxy] hexylacrylate} (PNIPAM‐ b ‐PAzoM) was synthesized by successive reversible addition‐fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) polymerization. In H 2 O/THF mixture, amphiphilic PNIPAM‐ b ‐PAzoM self‐assembles into giant micro‐vesicles. Upon irradiation of light at 365 nm, fusion of the vesicles was observed directly under an optical microscope. The real‐time fusion process is presented and the derivation is preliminarily due to the perturbation by the photoinduced trans ‐to‐ cis isomerization of azobenzene units in the vesicles.