Self-assembly of temperature sensitive unilamellar vesicles by a blend of block copolymers in aqueous solution

Jong Dae Jang, Changwoo Do, Joona Bang, Young Soo Han, Tae Hwan Kim

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

10 Scopus citations

Abstract

A self-assembled unilamellar vesicle, which can be used as a drug delivery system, was easily and simply fabricated using a blended system of Pluronic block copolymers. Controlling the hydrophilic mass fraction of block copolymers (by blending the block copolymer with a different hydrophilic mass fraction) and temperature (i.e., the hydrophobic interaction is controlled), a vesicular structure was formed. Small angle neutron scattering measurements showed that the vesicular structure had diameters of empty cores from 13.6 nm to 79.6 nm, and thicknesses of the bilayers from 2.2 nm to 8.7 nm when the hydrophobic interaction was changed. Therefore, considering that the temperature of the vesicle formation is controllable by the concentration of the blended block copolymers, it is possible for them to be applied in a wide range of potential applications, for example, as nanoreactors and nanovehicles.

Original languageEnglish
Article number63
JournalPolymers
Volume11
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - Jan 4 2019

Funding

Acknowledgments: This research was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) Grant (NRF-2017M2A2A6A05017651, NRF-2017R1D1A3B03028827, and NRF-2018M2B2A9065410) funded by the Korean government (MSIT). This study was also supported by HANARO center of Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute.

Keywords

  • Biocompatibility
  • Block copolymer
  • Micelle
  • Polymersome
  • Vesicle

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