Issue 16, 2014

Crystallinity-driven morphological ripening processes for poly(ethylene oxide)-block-polycaprolactone micelles in water

Abstract

A set of morphological transformations induced by core crystallization within spherical micelle-like aggregates of poly(ethylene oxide)-block-polycaprolactone (PEO-b-PCL) is described in the present article. The initial self-assembly step, in which individual copolymer chains associate to form the spheres, can be performed reproducibly; the stability of these spheres, however, seems to be limited, as both transmission electron microscopy and light scattering data suggest that the primary spheres transform slowly into elongated rod-like or ribbon-like aggregates when suspended in deionized water at room temperature. Although the sphere-to-rod transition takes place typically over a time scale of several days, the formation of individual rods from spheres is very rapid, as evidenced by the progressive increase in the number of long rods and the conspicuous absence of short rods.

Graphical abstract: Crystallinity-driven morphological ripening processes for poly(ethylene oxide)-block-polycaprolactone micelles in water

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
23 Nov 2013
Accepted
15 Jan 2014
First published
15 Jan 2014

Soft Matter, 2014,10, 2825-2835

Crystallinity-driven morphological ripening processes for poly(ethylene oxide)-block-polycaprolactone micelles in water

G. Rizis, T. G. M. van de Ven and A. Eisenberg, Soft Matter, 2014, 10, 2825 DOI: 10.1039/C3SM52950A

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