Wehr Riccardo, Gaitzsch Jens, Daubian Davy, Fodor Csaba, Meier Wolfgang
University of Basel, Department of Chemistry Mattenstrasse 24a, BPR 1096 4058 Basel Switzerland
Leibniz-Institut für Polymerforschung Dresden e.V. Hohe Strasse 6 01069 Dresden Germany.
RSC Adv. 2020 Jun 12;10(38):22701-22711. doi: 10.1039/d0ra04274a. eCollection 2020 Jun 10.
Aqueous self-assembly of amphiphilic block copolymers is studied extensively for biomedical applications like drug delivery and nanoreactors. The commonly used hydrophilic block poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO), however, suffers from several drawbacks. As a potent alternative, poly(glycidol) (PG) has gained increasing interest, benefiting from its easy synthesis, high biocompatibility and flexibility as well as enhanced functionality compared to PEO. In this study, we present a quick and well-controlled synthesis of poly(butylene oxide)--poly(glycidol) (PBO--PG) amphiphilic diblock copolymers together with a straight-forward self-assembly protocol. Depending on the hydrophilic mass fraction of the copolymer, nanoscopic micelles, worms and polymersomes were formed as well as microscopic giant unilamellar vesicles. The particles were analysed regarding their size and shape, using dynamic and static light scattering, TEM and Cryo-TEM imaging as well as confocal laser scanning microscopy. We have discovered a strong dependence of the formed morphology on the self-assembly method and show that only solvent exchange leads to the formation of homogenous phases. Thus, a variety of different structures can be obtained from a highly flexible copolymer, justifying a potential use in biomedical applications.
两亲性嵌段共聚物的水相自组装在药物递送和纳米反应器等生物医学应用方面得到了广泛研究。然而，常用的亲水性嵌段聚环氧乙烷（PEO）存在几个缺点。作为一种有效的替代物，聚缩水甘油（PG）因其易于合成、高生物相容性、柔韧性以及与PEO相比增强的功能性而越来越受到关注。在本研究中，我们展示了聚丁烯氧化物-聚缩水甘油（PBO-PG）两亲性二嵌段共聚物的快速且可控的合成方法以及一种简单的自组装方案。根据共聚物的亲水质量分数，形成了纳米级胶束、蠕虫状和聚合物囊泡以及微米级巨型单层囊泡。使用动态和静态光散射、透射电子显微镜（TEM）和冷冻透射电子显微镜成像以及共聚焦激光扫描显微镜对这些颗粒的尺寸和形状进行了分析。我们发现所形成的形态对自组装方法有很强的依赖性，并表明只有溶剂交换会导致均相的形成。因此，从一种高度灵活的共聚物可以获得多种不同的结构，证明了其在生物医学应用中的潜在用途。
