ISSN print edition: 0366-6352 ISSN electronic edition: 1336-9075 Registr. No.: MK SR 9/7 Published monthly

RAFT polymerization of linear ABC triblock copolymer PtBA-b-PS-b-P2VP and regulation of its hierarchical self-assembly structure in solution

Arzugul Muslim, Dilnur Malik, and Mehriban Hojiahmat

School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Xinjiang Normal University, No. 102 Xinyi Street, Urumqi, 830054 Xinjiang, China

E-mail: mamat2002@163.com

Abstract: Linear ABC triblock copolymer PtBA₁₅₄-b-PS₃₀₀-b-P2VP₂₄₀ was successfully synthesized by RAFT polymerization. Block copolymer micelles were prepared by the two-step hierarchical selfassembly process. Size exclusion chromatography and ¹H NMR were used to characterize the structure of samples. Morphologies and size of micelles were determined by transmission electron microscope. The results showed that the densely dispersed spherical micelles of PtBA₁₅₄-b-PS₃₀₀-b-P2VP₂₄₀ were obtained in the first step of the hierarchical self-assembly process. In the second step, core-compartmentalized micelle strings with different lengths and distribution densities were obtained when the primary self-assembled solution was dialyzed in distilled water with pH ≈ 3. When distilled water with pH ≈ 3 was added drop-wise to this solution, uniformly dispersed spherical core-compartmentalized micelles of PtBA₁₅₄-b-PS₃₀₀-b-P2VP₂₄₀ were prepared. Thus, hierarchical self-assembly structure of linear ABC triblock copolymer was obtained successfully and the preparation of uniformly dispersed spherical micelles of triblock copolymers was realized simply by changing the secondary self-assembly methods.

Keywords: RAFT polymerization – linear ABC triblock copolymer – hierarchical self-assembly in solution – spherical micelles

Full paper is available at www.springerlink.com.

DOI: 10.1515/chempap-2015-0147

Chemical Papers 69 (11) 1512–1518 (2015)