Zhu Anqi, Lv Xiaoqing, Shen Liangliang, Zhang Baohua, An Zesheng
Institute of Nanochemistry and Nanobiology, College of Environmental and Chemical Engineering, Shanghai University, Shanghai 200444, China.
ACS Macro Lett. 2017 Mar 21;6(3):304-309. doi: 10.1021/acsmacrolett.7b00069. Epub 2017 Mar 8.
Polymerization-induced cooperative assembly (PICA) is developed to promote morphological transitions at high solids via RAFT dispersion polymerization, using both a macromolecular chain transfer agent (macro-CTA) and a small molecule chain transfer agent (CTA) to generate nano-objects consisting of well-defined block copolymer and homopolymer. PICA is demonstrated to promote morphological transitions under various conditions. Elemental mapping provides unambiguous evidence for the uniform distribution of the homopolymer within the core of the nano-objects. It is proposed that the growing homopolymer first reaches its solubility limit and forms aggregates, which induce the adsorption of the growing block copolymer. This effective and robust PICA approach significantly expands the capability to promote morphological transitions in RAFT dispersion polymerization and will facilitate the efficient synthesis of various higher-order morphologies at high solids.
聚合诱导协同组装（PICA）通过可逆加成-断裂链转移（RAFT）分散聚合来促进高固含量下的形态转变，使用大分子链转移剂（macro-CTA）和小分子链转移剂（CTA）生成由明确的嵌段共聚物和均聚物组成的纳米物体。已证明PICA在各种条件下都能促进形态转变。元素映射为均聚物在纳米物体核心内的均匀分布提供了明确证据。有人提出，生长的均聚物首先达到其溶解度极限并形成聚集体，这些聚集体诱导生长的嵌段共聚物吸附。这种有效且稳健的PICA方法显著扩展了在RAFT分散聚合中促进形态转变的能力，并将有助于在高固含量下高效合成各种高阶形态。
