Duan Chao, Li Weihua, Qiu Feng, Shi An-Chang
State Key Laboratory of Molecular Engineering of Polymers, Collaborative Innovation Center of Polymers and Polymer Composite Materials, Department of Macromolecular Science, Fudan University, Shanghai 200433, China.
Department of Physics and Astronomy, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario L8S 4M1, Canada.
ACS Macro Lett. 2017 Mar 21;6(3):257-261. doi: 10.1021/acsmacrolett.7b00058. Epub 2017 Mar 1.
The occurrence and relative stability of planet-satellite nanostructures, composed of a host micelle (the planet) accompanied by a number of guest micelles (the satellites), in ABCB tetrablock terpolymer solutions are studied using the polymeric self-consistent field theory and dissipative particle dynamics simulations. The theoretical results demonstrate that the self-assembly of the ABCB tetrablock terpolymers with solvophobic A- and C-blocks and solvophilic B-blocks could lead to the formation of various planet-satellite superstructures, where the planet and satellites are composed of the A- and C-blocks, respectively. Furthermore, the number of satellites is controlled by the ratio of the two B-blocks. The arrangement of the satellites surrounding the planet resembles the solution of the well-known Thomson's problem concerning the optimum arrangement of a given number of electrons on a sphere. Besides providing a facile route to engineering novel multicompartment micelles with planet-satellite superstructures for potential advanced applications, the study strengthens the prospect that multiblock copolymers could become a useful platform for the fabrication of complex nanostructures.
利用聚合物自洽场理论和耗散粒子动力学模拟，研究了由主体胶束（“行星”）和多个客体胶束（“卫星”）组成的行星 - 卫星纳米结构在ABCB四嵌段三元共聚物溶液中的出现情况和相对稳定性。理论结果表明，具有疏溶剂性A - 嵌段和C - 嵌段以及亲溶剂性B - 嵌段的ABCB四嵌段三元共聚物的自组装可导致形成各种行星 - 卫星超结构，其中行星和卫星分别由A - 嵌段和C - 嵌段组成。此外，卫星的数量由两个B - 嵌段的比例控制。卫星围绕行星的排列类似于著名的汤姆森问题的解决方案，该问题涉及给定数量的电子在球体上的最佳排列。除了为设计具有行星 - 卫星超结构的新型多隔室胶束以实现潜在的先进应用提供一条简便途径外，该研究还增强了多嵌段共聚物可能成为制造复杂纳米结构有用平台的前景。
