School of Polymer Science and Engineering, The University of Southern Mississippi, 118 College Dr. #5050, Hattiesburg, 39406, MS, USA.
Small. 2018 Nov;14(46):e1802734. doi: 10.1002/smll.201802734. Epub 2018 Oct 17.
Polymer vesicles, also known as polymersomes, have garnered a lot of interest even before the first report of their fabrication in the mid-1990s. These capsules have found applications in areas such as drug delivery, diagnostics and cellular models, and are made via the self-assembly of amphiphilic block copolymers, predominantly with soft, rubbery hydrophobic segments. Comparatively, and despite their remarkable impermeability, glassy polymersomes (GPs) have been less pervasive due to their rigidity, lack of biodegradability and more restricted fabrication strategies. GPs are now becoming more prominent, thanks to their ability to undergo stable shape-change (e.g., into non-spherical morphologies) as a response to a predetermined trigger (e.g., light, solvent). The basics of block copolymer self-assembly with an emphasis on polymersomes and GPs in particular are reviewed here. The principles and advantages of shape transformation of GPs as well as their general usefulness are also discussed, together with some of the challenges and opportunities currently facing this area.
聚合物囊泡，也称为聚合物胶束，自 20 世纪 90 年代中期首次报道其制备以来，就引起了广泛关注。这些胶囊在药物输送、诊断和细胞模型等领域得到了应用，是通过两亲性嵌段共聚物的自组装形成的，主要由柔软的橡胶状疏水段组成。相比之下，尽管玻璃态聚合物囊泡（GPs）具有显著的不可渗透性，但由于其刚性、缺乏生物降解性以及更受限制的制造策略，其应用相对较少。由于 GPs 能够在预定的触发（例如光、溶剂）下发生稳定的形状变化（例如，变成非球形形态），因此它们现在变得更加突出。本文重点介绍了嵌段共聚物的自组装基础，特别是聚合物囊泡和 GPs。还讨论了 GPs 形状转变的原理和优势及其普遍适用性，以及该领域当前面临的一些挑战和机遇。
