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Anionic Polymerization of an Amphiphilic Copolymer for Preparation of Block Copolymer Micelles Stabilized by π-π Stacking Interactions
Published on: October 10, 2016
Force required to disassemble block copolymer micelles in water
1Key Lab of Organic Optoelectronics and Molecular Engineering, Department of Chemistry, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, PR China.
Abstract:
The force required to disassemble block copolymer micelles in water has been directly investigated via atomic force microscopy-based single-molecule force spectroscopy. The force needed to disassemble block copolymer micelles of poly(acrylic acid)-polyfluorene-poly(acrylic acid) in water is found to be 23 pN. The force increases as the stretching velocity increases, indicating that micelle disassembly is a dynamic process. In addition, the disassembly force is sensitive to the properties of the solvents. This study represents the first attempt to employ single-molecule force spectroscopy to directly measure the force needed to disassemble block copolymer micelles in water.
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