Solution self-assembly of polycarbonate block copolymers containing crystalline side chains

Abstract

Solution self-assembly of block copolymers containing crystalline side chains is currently a field of significant interest due to its well-documented capacity for morphological diversity and tunable order. However, a comprehensive understanding of the self-assembly behavior of such BCPs governed by side chain crystallization remains to be fully realized. To this end, amphiphilic polycarbonate block copolymers containing crystalline side chains have been prepared to explore their solution self-assembly. Experimental results have shown that a BCP with a longer corona segment favors the formation of nanofibers in a selective solvent after applying a heating–cooling–aging process, while a BCP with a shorter corona block tends to form uniform nanodisc micelles upon dropwise addition of a selective solvent. The growth of both the nanofibers and nanodiscs is very slow and usually takes several days, which is driven by the regularly ordered packing arrangement of crystalline side chains of BCPs. This research not only expands the new systems for synthesizing uniform micelles, but more importantly, the resultant nanostructures may exhibit considerable potential in the biomedical field due to the inherent advantages of the polycarbonate composition.