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Gradient Structure‐Induced Temperature Responsiveness in Styrene/Methyl Methacrylate Gradient Copolymers Micelles
Author(s) -
Zheng Chao,
Huang Haiying,
He Tianbai
Publication year - 2014
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.201300769
Subject(s) - micelle , copolymer , materials science , styrene , methyl methacrylate , polymer chemistry , temperature gradient , methacrylate , chemical engineering , chemistry , composite material , polymer , aqueous solution , physics , engineering , quantum mechanics
In this work, micelles are formed by gradient copolymer of styrene and methyl methacrylate in acetone–water mixture and their temperature responsiveness is investigated in a narrow range near room temperature. Three different kinds of structural transitions could be induced by temperature: unimers to micelle transition, shrinkage/stretching of micelles, and morphological transition from spherical micelles to vesicles. In addition, a model analysis on the interface of gradient copolymer micelle is made to better understand these phenomena. It is found that both position and composition of the interface could alter in response to the change in temperature. According to the experiments and model analysis, it is proposed that temperature responsiveness might be an intrinsic and universal property of gradient copolymer micelles, which only originates from the gradient structure.