Cockram, A.A., Neal, T.J., Derry, M.J. et al. (5 more authors) (2017) Effect of Monomer Solubility on the Evolution of Copolymer Morphology during Polymerization-Induced Self-Assembly in Aqueous Solution. Macromolecules, 50 (3). pp. 796-802. ISSN 0024-9297
Abstract
Polymerization-induced self-assembly (PISA) has become a widely used technique for the rational design of diblock copolymer nano-objects in concentrated aqueous solution. Depending on the specific PISA formulation, reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) aqueous dispersion polymerization typically provides straightforward access to either spheres, worms, or vesicles. In contrast, RAFT aqueous emulsion polymerization formulations often lead to just kinetically-trapped spheres. This limitation is currently not understood, and only a few empirical exceptions have been reported in the literature. In the present work, the effect of monomer solubility on copolymer morphology is explored for an aqueous PISA formulation. Using 2-hydroxybutyl methacrylate (aqueous solubility = 20 g dm(-3) at 70 °C) instead of benzyl methacrylate (0.40 g dm(-3) at 70 °C) for the core-forming block allows access to an unusual "monkey nut" copolymer morphology over a relatively narrow range of target degrees of polymerization when using a poly(methacrylic acid) RAFT agent at pH 5. These new anisotropic nanoparticles have been characterized by transmission electron microscopy, dynamic light scattering, aqueous electrophoresis, shear-induced polarized light imaging (SIPLI), and small-angle X-ray scattering.
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2017 American Chemical Society. This is an open access article published under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the author and source are cited. | ||||||
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield | ||||||
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Science (Sheffield) > Department of Chemistry (Sheffield) | ||||||
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Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield | ||||||
Date Deposited: | 28 Feb 2017 16:33 | ||||||
Last Modified: | 28 Feb 2017 16:33 | ||||||
Published Version: | http://doi.org/10.1021/acs.macromol.6b02309 | ||||||
Status: | Published | ||||||
Publisher: | American Chemical Society | ||||||
Refereed: | Yes | ||||||
Identification Number: | https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.macromol.6b02309 | ||||||
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