Pod-Like Supramicelles with Multicompartment Hydrophobic Cores Prepared by Self-Assembly of Modified Chitosan

Yiming Wang; Jie Wang; Tongshuai Wang; Yisheng Xu; Lei Shi; Yongtao Wu; Li Li; Xuhong Guo

doi:10.1007/s40820-015-0070-4

Pod-Like Supramicelles with Multicompartment Hydrophobic Cores Prepared by Self-Assembly of Modified Chitosan

Nanomicro Lett. 2016;8(2):151-156. doi: 10.1007/s40820-015-0070-4. Epub 2015 Oct 27.

Authors

Yiming Wang¹, Jie Wang¹, Tongshuai Wang¹, Yisheng Xu¹, Lei Shi², Yongtao Wu², Li Li¹, Xuhong Guo¹

Affiliations

¹ 1State Key Laboratory of Chemical Engineering, East China University of Science and Technology, Shanghai, 200237 People's Republic of China.
² Firmenich Aromatics (China) Co., Ltd., Shanghai, 201108 People's Republic of China.

Abstract

In this paper, pod-like supramicelles with multicompartment hydrophobic cores were prepared by self-assembly of amphiphilic N-phthaloylchitosan-g-poly(N-vinylcaprolactam) (PHCS-g-PNVCL) in aqueous medium. The employed biocompatible amphiphilic polymer was synthesized by grafting the carboxyl terminated poly(N-vinylcaprolactam) (PNVCL-COOH) chains onto N-phthaloylchitosan (PHCS) backbone. ¹H NMR and FTIR results confirmed the molecular structure of the copolymers. The morphology of the supramicelles assembled by PHCS-g-PNVCL was revealed by means of TEM and polarized light microscope. In solution, the supramicelles were very stable as monitored by DLS and zeta potential measurements. Temperature and pH presented significant influences on the size and size distribution of the supramicelles. These supramicelles with multicompartment hydrophobic cores should be ideal biomimetic systems with promising applications in drug delivery.

Keywords: Amphiphiles; Chitosan; Graft copolymers; Multicompartment supramicelles; Self-assembly.