Issue 48, 2019, Issue in Progress

Converse transitions between the micelles and the vesicles of pyrrolidone-based AIE amphiphilic copolymers in polar and apolar solvents

Abstract

Herein, a new family of aggregation-induced emission (AIE) amphiphilic copolymers, named poly(N-(2-methacryloyloxyethyl)pyrrolidone)-b-poly(lauryl methacrylate-co-1-ethenyl-4-(1,2,2-triphenylethenyl)benzene), PNMPx-b-P(LMAy-co-TPEz), was developed by the reversible addition–fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) polymerization method. The polymerization degree x of the NMP segment was kept constant at 35, whereas that of the LMA segment ranged from 9 to 55 with the polymerization degree ratio y/z of the LMA and TPE segments being around 9. As a result, the PNMPx-b-P(LMAy-co-TPEz) copolymer gradually transformed from being water soluble to oil soluble with an increase in the length of the P(LMAy-co-TPEz) segment. Moreover, these copolymers could form self-organized normal and reverse assemblies in both water and n-dodecane. Various morphologies, including spherical micelles, worm-like micelles and vesicles, were confirmed by the transmission electron microscopy (TEM) observation. Specifically, the micelle-to-vesicle transition via worm-like micelles occurred in the aqueous solution upon increasing the length of the P(LMAy-co-TPEz) segment, whereas the reverse transition occurred in n-dodecane. Because of the presence of the AIE-active TPE segment, both the aqueous and the n-dodecane solutions of PNMPx-b-P(LMAy-co-TPEz) were highly luminescent, and their fluorescence quantum yields significantly depended on the polarity of the solvent and the morphology of the assemblies. Due to the strong luminescence properties of PNMPx-b-P(LMAy-co-TPEz) assemblies, these AIE-active amphiphilic copolymers acted as excellent bioimaging probes with high efficiency.

Graphical abstract: Converse transitions between the micelles and the vesicles of pyrrolidone-based AIE amphiphilic copolymers in polar and apolar solvents

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
02 Aug 2019
Accepted
22 Aug 2019
First published
06 Sep 2019
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY-NC license

RSC Adv., 2019,9, 28102-28111

Converse transitions between the micelles and the vesicles of pyrrolidone-based AIE amphiphilic copolymers in polar and apolar solvents

X. He, B. Wang, X. Li and J. Dong, RSC Adv., 2019, 9, 28102 DOI: 10.1039/C9RA05997K

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