화학공학소재연구정보센터
Macromolecules, Vol.50, No.5, 2165-2174, 2017
In Situ Cross-Linking as a Platform for the Synthesis of Triblock Copolymer Vesicles with Diverse Surface Chemistry and Enhanced Stability via RAFT Dispersion Polymerization
An intrinsic dilemma exists for block copolymer vesicles improving the colloidal stability of vesicles using long/charged stabilizing blocks lowers the propensity of morphological transition to vesicles. Moreover, maintaining the vesicular morphology requires effective structure stabilization via cross-linking. We report a strategy to circumvent this problem and simultaneously improve the colloidal and structural stability of vesicles synthesized via polymerization induced self-assembly (PISA) using dispersion polymerization. More specifically, in situ cross-linked poly(N,N-dimethylacrylamide)-b-poly(diacetone acrylarnide-co-allylacrylamide) diblock copolymer vesicles are first synthesized via aqueous dispersion polymerization, which then serve as a robust platform to initiate the growth of a third hydrophilic block of either neutral poly(N,N-dimethylacrylamide), anionic poly(2-acrylamido-2-methyl-l-propanesulfonic acid sodium salt), or cationic poly(3-acrylamidopropyl trimethylammonium chloride) with retained vesicular morphology. The formed cross-linked triblock copolymer vesicles have advantages of diverse surface chemistry and arbitrary stabilizing block length. As a control experiment, synthesis from linear diblock copolymer vesicles provides a mixture of triblock copolymer vesicles and spheres. The successful synthesis of triblock copolymer vesicles with a binary mixture of two hydrophilic stabilizing blocks is supported by dynamic light scattering (DLS), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), electrophoresis, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). Both linear and cross-linked triblock copolymer vesicles are subjected to solvent dissolution, freeze-drying, and surfactant challenge studies, which collectively demonstrate that cross-linked triblock copolymers can maintain their vesicular structure and show excellent colloidal and structural stability, as indicated by DLS, TEM, and transmittance measurements.