Langmuir, Vol.20, No.18, 7385-7391, 2004
Spontaneous curvature induced shape transformations of tubular polymersomes
The behavior of tubular polymersomes is investigated within the framework of the elastic energy model. The transition from a cylindrical tube to a chain of beads connected by small necks is studied in detail. The evolution of a polymersome shape, resulting from a change of the temperature is modeled by the shape transformations caused by a change of the spontaneous curvature. Good agreement between the experiments and the theoretical calculations is found.