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Updated: Jun 6, 2026

Self-assembling Morphologies Obtained from Helical Polycarbodiimide Copolymers and Their Triazole Derivatives
Published on: February 7, 2017
Temperature-induced morphological change of ABC 3-miktoarm star terpolymer assemblies in aqueous solution
1Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at the Microscale and School of Life Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui, People's Republic of China.
Abstract:
This work reports temperature-induced morphological change of ABC 3-miktoarm star terpolymer assemblies in aqueous solution. The terpolymer (MPEG)(PCL)(PPE) is composed of hydrophilic monomethoxy poly(ethylene glycol) (MPEG), hydrophobic poly(ɛ-caprolactone) (PCL) and thermosensitive polyphosphoester (PPE) chains, emanating from a central junction point. It is thermosensitive in aqueous solution, forming spherical micelles at lower temperature, which transition to short nano-rod morphology at temperature higher than the cloud point. The temperature induced morphological transition of this biodegradable miktoarm star terpolymer shows that it has potential in stimulus-controlled drug delivery applications.
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