Predicting monomers for use in aqueous ring-opening metathesis polymerization-induced self-assembly
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Authors
Colleges, School and Institutes
Abstract
Aqueous polymerization-induced self-assembly (PISA) is a well-established methodology enabling in situ synthesis of polymeric nanoparticles of controllable morphology. Notably, PISA via ring-opening metathesis polymerization (ROMPISA) is an emerging technology for block copolymer self-assembly, mainly due to its high versatility and robustness. However, a limited number of monomers suitable for core-forming blocks in aqueous ROMPISA have been reported to date. In this work, we identified seven monomers for use as either corona- or core-forming blocks during aqueous ROMPISA by in silico calculation of relative hydrophobicity for corresponding oligomeric models. The predicted monomers were validated experimentally by conducting ROMPISA using our previously reported two-step approach. In addition to predictive data, our computational model was exploited to identify trends between polymer hydrophobicity and the morphology of the self-assembled nano-objects they formed. We expect that this methodology will greatly expand the scope of aqueous ROMPISA, as monomers can be easily identified based on the structure-property relationships observed herein.
Details
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 466-472 |
Number of pages | 7 |
Journal | ACS Macro Letters |
Volume | 8 |
Issue number | 4 |
Publication status | Published - 3 Apr 2019 |