Alternating polymer vesicles

Abstract

We demonstrate here that the formation of polymer vesicles is not the exclusive realm of amphiphilic block copolymers. The natural alternating conjugation of hydrophobic alkyl maleates and hydrophilic polyhydroxy vinyl ethers under free-radical polymerization conditions also yields polymers with sufficient backbone amphiphilicity to form vesicles. In contrast to conventional polymersomes, these polymer vesicles have thin flexible shells capable of forming ultra-small unilamellar vesicles in water as confirmed by cryogenic-transmission electron microscopy (cryo-TEM), small-angle neutron scattering (SANS), and dynamic light scattering (DLS). The encapsulation and release characteristics of these alternating polymer vesicles are, however, similar to their surfactant counterparts.