Shape Transformations of Vesicles Self-Assembled from Amphiphilic Hyperbranched Multiarm Copolymers via Simulation

Area of Science:

• Soft Matter Physics
• Polymer Science
• Materials Science

Background:

• Vesicle shape transformations are crucial in biological and clinical sciences.
• Hyperbranched polymer vesicles (branched polymersomes) are novel biomembrane models.
• Previous research lacked experimental or theoretical studies on hyperbranched polymer vesicle shape transformations.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the shape transformations of hyperbranched polymer vesicles.
• To explore the influence of interaction parameters and polymer concentrations on vesicle morphology.
• To provide theoretical support for fabricating diverse vesicle shapes from hyperbranched polymers.

Main Methods:

• Dissipative Particle Dynamics (DPD) simulations were employed.
• Vesicles were self-assembled from amphiphilic hyperbranched multiarm copolymers (HMCs).
• Morphological phase diagrams were analyzed based on interaction parameters and polymer concentrations.

Main Results:

• Two main types of vesicles were identified: those without holes (at low concentrations) and those with holes (at high concentrations).
• Vesicles without holes included unilamellar, double-lamellar, discocyte-shaped, and tubular forms.
• Vesicles with holes included stomatocyte-shaped, toroidal, genus-3, and genus-4 toroidal vesicles.

Conclusions:

• DPD simulations successfully modeled hyperbranched polymer vesicle shape transformations.
• Polymer concentration and interaction parameters dictate vesicle morphology, including the formation of holes.
• This work offers a theoretical framework for designing novel hyperbranched polymer vesicles with controlled shapes.