Triggered Degradable Colloidal Particles with Ordered Inverse Bicontinuous Cubic and Hexagonal Mesophases

Abstract

We herein report a facile strategy to prepare triggered degradable block copolymer nano/macro-objects, ranging from typical micelles, worms, jellyfish, and vesicles to rarely achieved spongosomes, cubosomes, and hexosomes via RAFT-mediated polymerizationinduced self-assembly (PISA). The morphological transitions from a simple spherical micelle to a spongosome, ordered Im ̅ 3m cubosome, and p6mm hexosome were captured and demonstrated by TEM, SEM, and synchrotron SAXS. In addition, morphological phase diagrams including important factors, such as solid contents, degree of polymerization (DP), and stabilizer block chain length, were constructed to unveil the formation mechanism and guide the scalable preparation of complex morphologies with packing parameter (P) > 1. This study not only represents an example that achieved inverse mesophases via acrylate-based monomers with high conversion but also reports a triggered degradable system in the most extended morphological range via PISA. The facile synthesis and stimuli-responsiveness of our system should greatly expand the utility of polymer inverse mesophases for triggered releasing, templating, and many other applications.

Novel Amphiphilic Block Copolymers for the Formation of Stimuli-Responsive Non-Lamellar Lipid Nanoparticles

“…As a proof of concept, the responsiveness of the ABC-stabilized MO nanoparticles was examined by changing environmental factors such as H 2 O 2 , pH and temperature. The PTBA block is degradable in response to H 2 O 2 and given the hydrophobic nature of the PTBA block, H 2 O 2 -induced degradation is expected to lead to LLC mesophase changes as the polymer becomes more hydrophilic and the inserted PTBA region is eliminated [59]. Indeed, when the MO nanoparticles stabilized by PTBA-containing polymers were incubated in 50 mM H 2 O 2 , a reduction of the membrane curvature indicated by the mesophase transformation from H II or L 2 phase to Q II phase was observed (Table 1 vs. Table 2).…”

“…The hydrophobicity of the PTBA-containing polymers is expected to decrease in a H 2 O 2 environment due to H 2 O 2 -induced degradation of the pinacol boronic ester group followed by the loss of the aromatic ring [59]. Therefore, MO nanoparticles stabilized by PTBA-containing polymers may undergo LLC mesophase changes in the presence of H 2 O 2 , as the polymer side-group structure changes.…”

“…The synthetic ABCs were designed with a hydrophobic segment to promote partitioning into the MO lipid layer, an extended hydrophilic PEG segment for steric stabilization, and responsive functional moieties (chemical structures given in Figure 2). The functional moiety of pinacol boronic ester in poly(4-(4,4,5,5-tetramethyl-1,3,2-dioxaborolan-2-yl)benzyl acrylate) (PTBA) is responsive to H 2 O 2 [59], while the PDMAEMA is a dually responsive polymer in response to a change of pH and temperature [60]. MO was chosen because it is the most studied and well-characterized lipid in the formulation of non-lamellar lipid nanoparticles [6,61].…”

Synthesis of Silver and Gold Nanoparticles: Chemical and Green Synthesis Method and Its Toxicity Evaluation against Pathogenic Bacteria Using the ToxTrak Test

“…On the other hand, Bio-AgNPs and Bio-AuNPs with cubic, hexagonal, and spherical shapes with average sizes of 25.25 and 16.65 nm were obtained, respectively (Figure 6(a) and 6(b)). Biological synthesized AuNPs with size ranges of 15 to 55 nm with pseudospherical, triangular, and hexagonal [46][47][48][49][50]. All observed NPs are uniformly distributed in various sizes without significant agglomeration.…”

Bifunctional RAFT Agent Directed Preparation of Polymer/Graphene Oxide Composites

“…[ 32 ] More importantly, RAFT polymerization is compatible with a wide range of functional monomers and reaction media, and is arguably the most versatile controlled/living radical polymerization. [ 33–40 ] Herein, the dithiocarbamate‐based RAFT agent PPCP with the incorporation of pyrene functional group that allows the strong π – π stacking between synthesized polymers and GO (Scheme 1) was designed and synthesized. In addition, the presence of the pyrrole group in PPCP allows the formation of brush polymer with a conductive PPy backbone, which can further enhance the interactions between polymers and GO (Scheme 1).…”