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Updated: Sep 21, 2025

Synthesis of Monodisperse Cylindrical Nanoparticles via Crystallization-driven Self-assembly of Biodegradable Block Copolymers
Published on: June 20, 2019
Stabilizing Phases of Block Copolymers with Gigantic Spheres via Designed Chain Architectures
Yicheng Qiang1, Weihua Li1, An-Chang Shi2
1State Key Laboratory of Molecular Engineering of Polymers, Key Laboratory of Computational Physical Sciences, Department of Macromolecular Science, Fudan University, Shanghai 200433, China.
Abstract:
It is generally believed that the spherical domains self-assembled from AB-type block copolymers are composed of the minority A blocks with a volume fraction of f < 1/2. Breaking this generic rule so that the spherical domains are formed by the majority A blocks (f > 1/2) requires mechanisms to drastically expand the stable region of spherical packing phases. Self-consistent field theory predicts that dendron-like AB-type block copolymers, composed of G - 1 generations of A blocks connected with the outermost generation of B blocks, exhibit a stable region of spherical packing phases extending to f ∼ 0.7. The extremely expanded spherical regions shed light on the mechanisms governing the self-assembly of amphiphilic macromolecules, as well as provide opportunities to engineer complex spherical packing phases.
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