Syntheses of amphiphilic diblock copolymers containing a conjugated block and their self-assembling properties

Hengbin Wang, H. Hau Wang, Volker S. Urban, Kenneth C. Littrell, P. Thiyagarajan, Luping Yu

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

211 Scopus citations

Abstract

An efficient approach to the syntheses of amphiphilic rod - coil diblock and coil - rod - coil triblock copolymers was developed. Each diblock copolymer consists of a perfectly monodispersed oligo(phenylene vinylene) covalently bonded to a poly(ethylene glycol) block with a very low polydispersity (< 1.05). The structure and basic physical properties of these copolymers were characterized by various spectroscopic techniques such as NMR, MALDI-TOF, GPC, DSC, UV/vis, and the fluorescence study. These diblock copolymers were shown to possess remarkable self-assembling abilities, and long cylindrical micelles (>1 μm) were formed. TEM, SANS, and AFM studies showed that the core of the micelles has a diameter of ~8-10 nm and was composed of an OPV block. TEM and SANS studies revealed that these OPV-PEG micelles have a cylindrical OPV core surrounded by a PEG corona. Cryo-TEM and SANS studies indicate that fibers were formed even in very dilute THF/H2O solutions. Since the conjugated OPV blocks exhibit liquid crystallinity and electric and optical properties, these micelles are interesting for studying the electroactive effect in a nanometer scale.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)6855-6861
Number of pages7
JournalJournal of the American Chemical Society
Volume122
Issue number29
DOIs
StatePublished - Jul 26 2000
Externally publishedYes

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