Janus-like spheres, disks, rings, cylinders, and vesicles from the self-assembly of mixture of AB and BC diblock copolymers in A- and C-selective solvents

Abstract

Janus particles with two different compartments have enormous potential as building blocks of hierarchically multifunctional nanomaterials. One of the most versatile and powerful methods to fabricate Janus micelles is through the solution-state self-assembly of block copolymers. In this study, we applied the Monte Carlo simulation to study the self-assembly of a AB/BC diblock copolymer mixture in A-and C-selective solvents. Our simulations predicted a variety of novel Janus micelles, which include Janus-like cylinders, lamellas, vesicles, and rings, all of which were self-assembled from amphiphilic A 4 B 6 /B 6 C 4 copolymers. The effects of control parameters, which include the solvent quality for solvophobic B blocks (3 BS ) and the incompatibility between the solvophilic A and C blocks (3 AC ), on the formation of Janus micelles were examined, and a generic phase diagram in 3 BS Â 3 AC was constructed.The phase diagram demonstrates that the micellar shape mainly depends on 3 BS , whereas the formation of the Janus architecture is controlled by 3 AC . Moreover, the formation pathways of the Janus lamella, vesicle, and ring were investigated and their formation mechanisms were investigated.

Synthesis and self-assembly of stimuli-responsive amphiphilic block copolymers based on polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane

“…The self‐assembly of amphiphilic block copolymers has attracted extensive interests in the past several decades, since they can self‐assemble into a rich variety of morphologies including spheres, rods, lamellae, vesicles, and others . These assembled morphologies could endow them with the potential application in many fields such as nanoreactors, catalysis, and drug delivery systems .…”

Inverted Micelle‐in‐Micelle Configuration in Cationic/Carbohydrate Surfactant Mixtures

“…Finally, the segregation of headgroups between the interior and exterior of surfactant aggregates is a familiar concept in asymmetric lipid vesicles. Computational studies of mixed micelles have shown the possibility that headgroup–headgroup interactions can lead to headgroup segregation within micelles (Figure B) . However, the structure in Figure is most likely driven not by antagonistic headgroup–headgroup interactions but a preference of cationic headgroups for water compared to carbohydrate, and the tendency for hydrogen bonding among carbohydrates.…”

Engineering single-polymer micelle shape using nonuniform spontaneous surface curvature

“…made out of the micelle's constituent amphiphiles may be conducted to determine the continuum parameters inherent to the amphiphiles (such as the amphiphile surface density, bending modulus, etc) [14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23]. Instead of investigating the continuum properties of the micelle shape to infer geometrical features, micelles of interest may be directly simulated with a particle-based model (with either atomic or coarse-grained resolution) [24][25][26][27][28][29]. Additionally, micelle shape can be studied experimentally [30][31][32][33].…”

“…Second, we attempt to resolve average positions of individual amphiphile junction points. However, unlike the micelle simulations of [24][25][26][27][28][29], which study only the topology or rough shape features such as size or aspect ratio, this work seeks to obtain precise control of the micelle shape. Fine shape control is desirable both because it is a requirement of the lock and key interactions referenced in [8], and it can also be used to achieve full optimization of a micelle's drug delivery properties, as will be discussed further in Sec.…”