Specific Disassembly of Lamellar Crystalline Micelles of Block Copolymer into Cylinders

Researchers synthesized a poly(ε-caprolactone)-bpoly((dimethylamino)ethyl methacrylate) (PCL-b-PDM) block copolymer (BCP), and studied the disassembly behavior of its crystalline micelles in the aqueous solution. The researchers developed a new way to induce disassembly of crystalline micelles via core-additive interaction. The BCP was first dissolved in dimethylformamide (DMF), a good solvent to all blocks. The homogeneous solution was injected with redistilled water at a slow rate under mild stirring. Then the solution was dialyzed against deionized water to remove the organic phase at room temperature. The micellar solution was diluted with redistilled water to a certain concentration. For TEM, AFM, and DLS tests, micellar concentration was 0.1 mg/mL. For WAXS and DSC measurements, concentrated micellar solutions were prepared to get a mass of freeze-dried micelles.