Multi-compartment unimolecular micelles from (ABC)n multi-arm star triblock terpolymers
Date
2007ISSN
1022-1336Source
Macromolecular Rapid CommunicationsVolume
28Issue
5Pages
560-566Google Scholar check
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Four linear and four star equimolar terpolymers based on non-ionic hydrophilic methoxy hexa(ethylene glycol) methacrylate, ionizable hydrophilic 2-(dimethylamino)ethyl methacrylate and neutral hydrophobic methyl methacrylate were synthesized using group transfer polymerization and investigated in aqueous dilute solutions. It was found that the (ABC)n multi-arm star terpolymers formed unimolecular micelles comprising three centrosymmetric compartments. The position of each compartment could be determined by the block sequence (ABC, ACB or BAC) atwill. On the other hand, the ABC linear counterparts formed loose associates with very low aggregation numbers. It was shown that the polymer architecture (linear versus star) greatly affected the micellization phenomena of the terpolymers in selective media. © 2007 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KCaA.