Self-Assembly Behavior of Thermoresponsive Oligo(ethylene glycol) Methacrylates Random Copolymer

Baoliang Peng; Nathan Grishkewich; Zhaoling Yao; Xia Han; Honglai Liu; Kam C Tam

doi:10.1021/mz300135x

Self-Assembly Behavior of Thermoresponsive Oligo(ethylene glycol) Methacrylates Random Copolymer

ACS Macro Lett. 2012 May 15;1(5):632-635. doi: 10.1021/mz300135x. Epub 2012 Apr 24.

Authors

Baoliang Peng^{1

2}, Nathan Grishkewich¹, Zhaoling Yao¹, Xia Han², Honglai Liu², Kam C Tam¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Chemical Engineering, Waterloo Institute for Nanotechnology, University of Waterloo, 200 University Avenue West, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada N2L 3G1.
² Department of Chemistry, East China University of Science and Technology, 130 Meilong Road, Shanghai 200237, People's Republic of China.

PMID: 35607076
DOI: 10.1021/mz300135x

Abstract

A well-defined random copolymer containing 2-(2-methoxyethoxy) ethyl methacrylate (MEO₂MA, M_n = 188 g/mol) and poly(ethylene glycol) methyl ether methacrylate (PEGMA, M_n = 2080 g/mol) (poly(MEO₂MA-co-PEGMA₂₀₈₀)), M_n = 17300 g/mol) was synthesized using the atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) process, and its thermoresponsive behaviors in aqueous solution were investigated. In comparison to other temperature-sensitive random copolymers based on oligo(ethylene glycol) methacrylates, this copolymer exhibited an unusual thermally induced two-stage aggregation process. The copolymer chains associate at the first thermal transition followed by a rearrangement process at the second thermal transition to produce a stable core-shell micellar structure. The morphology of the micelle comprises of a methacrylate core stabilized by the longer ethylene glycol segments (M_n = 2080 g/mol) shell.