화학공학소재연구정보센터
Polymer, Vol.55, No.12, 2921-2927, 2014
Vesicles from the self-assembly of coil-rod-coil triblock copolymers in selective solvents
Self-assembled vesicles formed by symmetrical coil rod coil triblock copolymer in selective solvents are investigated by dissipative particle dynamics method. With varying the coil length L-c and the rod length L-r, five kinds of typically ordered micelles are observed, including the special vesicles formed in the range of the rod block ratio f(r) approximate to 30% similar to 50% and the rod length L-r <= 9. The kinetic process of vesicle formation is also observed. The aggregates firstly experience the fusion, elongation, and deformation, and then encompass the solvents, and finally close up to a vesicle membrane, where the bilayer disc is observed as an intermediate phase transited from solid micelles to hollow vesicles. A scaling behavior of the average aggregate size with time is also obtained during the process of the self-assembly. Furthermore, the effects of polymer concentration f(p) and solvent property are discussed. Vesicle structure only appears in the range of f(p) = 6% similar to 25%, where vesicle size exhibits a well linear increase with polymer concentration. Meanwhile, vesicle size decreases with an increase in the interactions a(CS) between coil blocks and solvents. Due to the interfacial energy increased with a(CS), the system minimizes interfacial energy by compressing the vesicle size. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.