Effect of block sequence on the self-assembly of ABC terpolymers in selective solvent.
The effect of block sequence on the self-assembly of ABC terpolymers in selective solvent (water/THF) was explored based on two kinds of terpolymers: polystyrene-block-poly(ethylene oxide)-block-poly(acrylic acid) (PS-b-PEO-b-PAA) and PEO-b-PS-b-PAA with the same component, comparable molecular weight, but different block sequence. Copolymer PS-b-PEO-b-PAA has a higher critical water content (CWC) and larger aggregates size than PEO-b-PS-b-PAA. Furthermore, they presented vesicles with hundreds of nanometers at 25% water content which was not observed in the case of PEO-b-PS-b-PAA. It was also found that there was a sharp jump of both the scattering light intensity and average aggregate size for PS-b-PEO-b-PAA. The kinetics of morphological transitions vs the water content was described to explain this phenomenon.
The Key Laboratory of Molecular Engineering of Polymer, State Education Ministry of China, Department of Macromolecular Science, Fudan University, Shanghai 200433, China.
Yi
Y
Zhang
Wencheng
W
Lin
Rongkuan
R
Jing
Junlian
J
Huang