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Updated: Dec 7, 2025

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Published on: February 7, 2017
Effect of Hydrophilic Monomer Distribution on Self-Assembly of a pH-Responsive Copolymer: Spheres, Worms and Vesicles
Junliang Zhang1,2, Barbara Farias-Mancilla3, Ihor Kulai3
1Shaanxi Key Laboratory of Macromolecular Science and Technology, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi'an, Shaanxi, 710072, P. R. China.
Abstract:
A series of copolymers containing 50 mol % acrylic acid (AA) and 50 mol % butyl acrylate (BA) but with differing composition profiles ranging from an AA-BA diblock copolymer to a linear gradient poly(AA-grad-BA) copolymer were synthesized and their pH-responsive self-assembly behavior was investigated. While assemblies of the AA-BA diblock copolymer were kinetically frozen, the gradient-like compositions underwent reversible changes in size and morphology in response to changes in pH. In particular, a diblock copolymer consisting of two random copolymer segments of equal length (16 mol % and 84 mol % AA content, respectively) formed spherical micelles at pH >5, a mix of spherical and wormlike micelles at pH 5 and vesicles at pH 4. These assemblies were characterized by dynamic light scattering, cryo-transmission electron microscopy and small angle neutron scattering.
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