Direct Synthesis of Polymer Vesicles on the Hundred-Nanometer-and-Beyond Scale Using Chemical Oscillations.

The direct synthesis of block copolymer vesicles on the scale of tens to hundreds of nanometers using reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) dispersion polymerization as an effect of chemical oscillations is reported. RAFT polymerization is successfully accomplished between polyethylene glycol containing a RAFT agent (PEG-CTA) and ethyl acrylate monomer in the presence of the Belousov-Zhabotinsky (B-Z) reaction in oscillatory mode. The self-assembly of poly(ethylene glycol)-b-poly(ethyl acrylate) unimers gives rise to spherical micelles. The self-assembled micelles reorganize and transform to vesicles. All the chemistry of polymerization, self-assembly and self-organization, of macromolecules takes place in a single pot using only a few simple raw materials in aqueous solution.