title: Multi-armed micelles and block co-micelles via crystallization-driven self-assembly with homopolymer nanocrystals as initiators.
abstract: We report the preparation of multi-armed micelles and block co-micelles using the crystallization-driven self-assembly of crystalline-coil polyferrocenylsilane block copolymers from nanocrystals of the homopolymer. The resulting multi-armed micelles possessed hierarchical multipod structures with monodisperse and tunable arm lengths. The termini of the arms remained active to the addition of further block copolymer unimers, and multi-armed block co-micelles with segmented arm chemistries and variable segment sequences were prepared. Coronal cross-linking followed by nanocrystal dissolution led to the release of non-centrosymmetric AB cylindrical diblock co-micelles.
authors.affiliation: School of Chemistry, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 1TS, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Huibin
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Qiu
authors.forename: Graeme
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Cambridge
authors.forename: Mitchell A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Winnik
authors.forename: Ian
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Manners