Collect. Czech. Chem. Commun. 2006, 71, 723-738
https://doi.org/10.1135/cccc20060723

Atomic Force Microscopy and Light Scattering Study of Onion-Type Micelles Formed by Polystyrene-block-poly(2-vinylpyridine) and Poly(2-vinylpyridine)-block-poly(ethylene oxide) Copolymers in Aqueous Solutions

Pavel Matějíčeka, Miroslav Štěpáneka, Mariusz Uchmana, Karel Procházkaa,* and Milena Špírkováb

a Department of Physical and Macromolecular Chemistry and Laboratory of Specialty Polymers, School of Science, Charles University, Albertov 2030, 128 40 Prague 2, Czech Republic
b Institute of Macromolecular Chemistry, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Heyrovského nám. 2, 162 06 Prague 6, Czech Republic

Abstract

The three-layer onion micelles formed in aqueous solution by hierarchical self-assembly of polystyrene-block-poly(2-vinylpyridine) micelles, PS-PVP, and poly(2-vinylpyridine)-block-poly(ethylene oxide) chains, PVP-PEO, were studied by a combination of light scattering (LS) and atomic force microscopy (AFM). Section analysis of AFM images of micelles deposited on mica in combination with LS data from micellar solutions provide distribution functions of sizes from which the number and mass distributions of molar masses of micelles can be evaluated. Both light scattering and AFM data reveal that the used preparation protocol yields onion micelles accompanied by an admixture of PVP-PEO micelles. It means that only a certain amount of PVP-PEO self-assembles with PS-PVP and forms onion micelles. The remaining PVP-PEO copolymer forms either small PVP-PEO micelles or participates in formation of large aggregates at longer times. The time-dependent measurements show that both onion-type and core-shell PVP-PEO micelles are fairly stable over a long time period and only a low fraction of large aggregate forms on the timescale of weeks and at longer times, the solution does not change any more.

Keywords: Atomic force microscopy; Light scattering; Polymer micelles; Polymeric nanoparticles; Self-assembly; Block copolymers; Stability in aqueous solutions.

References: 32 live references.