Work

Supramolecular Assemblies from Amphiphilic Homopolymers: Testing the Scope

Year: 2006

Type: article

Abstract: It has been shown by us in a recent communication that homopolymers, in which each repeat unit contains a hydrophilic and a hydrophobic head group, are capable of forming environment-dependent micellar or inverse micellar assemblies. A systematic structure-property relationship study is carried out here to test the scope of the design. We show here that the molecular design is indeed broadly applicable and that there is a significant gain in the critical aggregation concentrations of these polymers, as compared to the small molecule counterparts. We also show that the design can be tuned to achieve vesicle-type assemblies, which further expands the repertoire of amphiphilic homopolymers in a variety of areas. Characterizations of these assemblies have been carried out using transmission electron microscopy, dynamic light scattering, static light scattering, and dye incorporation experiments.

Source: Journal of the American Chemical Society

DOI: 10.1021/ja065213o

Authors: Elamprakash N. Savariar, Sivakumar V. Aathimanikandan, S. Thayumanavan

Institution: University of Massachusetts Amherst

Language: English

Topic: Surfactants and Colloidal Systems

Subfield: Physical and Theoretical Chemistry

Field: Chemistry

Domain: Physical Sciences

Open Access status: green

Funder: National Institute of General Medical Sciences

Award: New Amphiphilic Dendrimers for Encapsulation and Release