Issue 28, 2023

Unravelling the thermo-responsive evolution from single-chain to multiple-chain nanoparticles by thermal field-flow fractionation

Abstract

The amphiphilic block copolymer polystyrene–polyethylene oxide (PS–PEO) is shown for the first time to exhibit unique thermo-responsive transformation into single-chain nanoparticles (SCNPs), as characterized by thermal field-flow fractionation (ThFFF) with multiple detectors. In toluene, the PEO blocks are shown to fold and collapse into spheres that are stabilized by PS shells (SCNP-shells), and solvophobic interactions are prescribed as the critical determinant of the overall dynamics of formation as a function of temperature. Contrary to the typically expected random coil conformation, PS–PEO is shown to formulate SCNP–shell nanostructures. Below a critical temperature threshold of 20 °C, the SCNP–shell nanostructures are shown to collate into much larger, multiple-chain nanoparticles (MCNPs) with multiple morphologies. The associated conformational evolutions in microstructure from SCNP–shell nanostructures to MCNPs are characterized in-depth with respect to their size, shape, morphology, molar mass, and their respective distributions.

Graphical abstract: Unravelling the thermo-responsive evolution from single-chain to multiple-chain nanoparticles by thermal field-flow fractionation

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
18 4月 2023
Accepted
24 6月 2023
First published
27 6月 2023
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY-NC license

Polym. Chem., 2023,14, 3302-3308

Unravelling the thermo-responsive evolution from single-chain to multiple-chain nanoparticles by thermal field-flow fractionation

U. L. Muza, C. D. Williams and A. Lederer, Polym. Chem., 2023, 14, 3302 DOI: 10.1039/D3PY00426K

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported Licence. You can use material from this article in other publications, without requesting further permission from the RSC, provided that the correct acknowledgement is given and it is not used for commercial purposes.

To request permission to reproduce material from this article in a commercial publication, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party commercial publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements