Poly(styrene)-block-poly(2-vinylpyridine)-block-poly(ethylene oxide) (PS-b-P2VP-b-PEO) ABC triblock copolymers commonly form core-shell-corona (CSC) micelles in water. These micelles consist of a PS spherical core, a P2VP shell, and a PEO corona. However, when the micelles are formed in the presence of a solvent selective for the PS block (benzene), the micellar morphology exhibits a sphere-to-rod transition, as result of the increased volume fraction of the core-forming blocks. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM) confirm that a PS rod-like core is surrounded by a P2VP shell and an external PEO corona. Nevertheless, the rod-like micelles coexist with spherical micelles that should be thermodynamically less stable, because of a higher stretching of the PS chains in the core. The P2VP chains are also in a stretched conformation, whatever the pH. The P2VP shell has been used as nanoreactor for the production of gold nanoparticles.
Affiliations
ULg (Université de Liège)CERM (Centre d'Etude et de Recherche sur les Macromolecules)
Lei, L., Gohy, J.-F., Willet, N., Zhang, J.-X., Varshney, S., & Jérôme, R. (2004). Tuning of the morphology of core-shell-corona micelles in water. I. Transition from sphere to cylinder. Macromolecules, 37(3), 1089-1094. https://doi.org/10.1021/ma034255j (Original work published 2004)