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ISBN 13 :
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Book Synopsis Manipulating the Morphologies of Poly(vinyl Alcohol) Block Copolymer Surfactants by :
Download or read book Manipulating the Morphologies of Poly(vinyl Alcohol) Block Copolymer Surfactants written by and published by . This book was released on 2014 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Amphiphilic block copolymers (ABCs) are macromolecules containing well-defined hydrophilic and hydrophobic segments that self-assemble into nanoscale aggregates such as spherical and cylindrical micelles and vesicles, when dispersed in block-selective solvents. ABCs possess a miniscule critical micelle concentration, which results in kinetically trapped and persistent assemblies in solution with slow chain exchange between aggregates. This makes them useful as rheological modifiers for personal care products, enhanced oil recovery, and drug delivery formulations. Their utility in many of these applications is crucially dependent on the ability to control the micellar morphologies that they adopt in selective solvents. Triggering ABC micellar morphological transformations, i.e. from spherical to cylindrical micelles, is important for generating "on-demand" stimuli-responsive morphologies that control the aggregate morphology and the bulk solution properties in any given application. In this thesis, we develop the straightforward synthesis of biodegradable and biocompatible ABCs comprised of poly(vinyl acetate) (PVAc) and poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA), with narrow molecular distributions and variable yet well-defined compositions. These block copolymer amphiphiles readily form spherical micelles in aqueous dispersions. We demonstrate that the addition of a water-soluble poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) homopolymer to these dispersions results in a rapid transformation of these spherical micelles into cylindrical micelles. Dilution of these cylindrical micelles with water induces their reversion to spherical micelles. Our results indicate that the reversible morphology change depends sensitively on the PEO homopolymer concentration and molecular weight, as well as the length of the PVA corona block of the micelles. Through a series of quantitative 1H NMR studies, we found that the preferential partitioning of PEO homopolymer into the PVAc micellar core drives this morphological transformation. We also investigated the aqueous micellar self-assembly of non-covalent amphiphilic block copolymers (NC-ABCs) derived from complexation of an anionic gemini dicarboxylate surfactant (Na-96) to poly(ethylene oxide)-block-poly(2-(methacryloyloxy)-ethyltrimethylammonium chloride) (mPEO-b-qPDMAEMAxCl) (x = 48 or 110) at charge stoichiometries of [qDMAEMA+]:[COO-] = 1:1 and 1:0.5. Our results demonstrate that these polymer/surfactant complexes adopt rod-like conformations, the liquid crystallinity of which drives the formation of facetted vesicles and hollow tubular micelles.