In this work, the self-assembly of a series of amphiphilic polystyrene-b-polyglycidol (PS-b-PGL) diblock copolymers in dioxane and dioxane/water mixtures is presented. The PS-b-PGL have an average degree of polymerization (DP) of PS block equal to 29 units and varied degrees of polymerization for the glycidol segments with DPs of 13, 42, 69 and 117. In dioxane, amphiphilic diblock copolymers form micelles with the hydrophilic PGL placed in the core. Critical micelle concentration (CMC) was determined based on the intensity of scattered light vs. concentration. The micelle size was measured by dynamic light scattering and transmission electron microscopy. Also, the behaviour of the copolymer was studied in water/dioxane solutions by following the changes of scattered light intensity with the addition of water to the system. Critical water content (CWC) of the studied systems decreased as the initial PS-b-PGL concentration in dioxane increased. This process was accompanied by a decrease in the size of aggregate formed. For a given initial copolymer concentration, the size of copolymer aggregates decreased linearly with increasing the length of the PGL block.
Keywords: aggregation; amphiphilic block copolymer; critical micelle concentration; critical water content; micellization; polystyrene-b-polyglycidol.