Assembly of polyelectrolyte-containing block copolymers in aqueous media

Tunable, High Modulus Hydrogels Driven by Ionic Coacervation

“…In addressing new strategies to yield high performance, physically associated hydrogels, the role of dynamic materials formed via electrostatic interactions serves as a powerful model. While block copolyelectrolytes are widely used in the construction of hydrogel materials, the majority of these systems are based on block copolymers where the ionic blocks serve as the water soluble component and neutral, hydrophobic blocks lead to network formation 16–20. In these examples, hydrogel formation requires hydrophobic collapse of the neutral blocks into discrete domains with the ionic mid‐block forming the solvated matrix and connection between discrete, hydrophobic crosslinking domains.…”

“…This work further exemplifies that hydrogels stabilized by non‐covalent associations can truly excel as three‐dimensional cell scaffolds. In direct contrast, charge driven assembly based solely on ionic interactions has received only minor attention15–17, 22, 23 with recent studies led by Aida,15 Cohen Stuart,17 Shull,22 and Lemmers23 demonstrating the responsive nature and significant potential of hydrogels based on ionic interactions.…”

Effect of hydrophilic chain length on the aqueous solution behavior of block amphiphilic copolymers PMMA‐b‐PDMAEMA

“…The amphiphilic diblock copolymers, PMMA‐ b ‐PDMAEMA, have been studied widely;18 however, few works involved the systemic investigations of the effects of PMMA or PDMAEMA block length on the solution properties, such as surface tension, cmc, hydrodynamic size, and micromorphology of the formed aggregates. In the present work, a series of PMMA‐ b ‐PDMAEMA with different molecular weights (DP of PDMAEMA changes from 11 to 337) were synthesized by ATRP method, using an ATRP prepared PMMA‐Br macroinitiator (DP = 55).…”

Double‐Faced Micelles from Water‐Soluble Polymers

“…When aqueous solutions of poly(acrylic acid)‐ block ‐poly(acryl amide), PAA 42 ‐ b ‐PAAm 417 , and poly(2‐methylvinylpyridinium iodide)‐ block ‐poly(ethylene oxide), P2MVP 42 ‐ b ‐PEO 446 , were mixed, micelles formed almost instantaneously in a narrow region around a mixing fraction f + =0.5 ( f + =[P2MVP]/([PAA]+[P2MVP])). The reversibility and responsive nature of this type of micelle, so‐called complex coacervate core micelles (C3Ms),11–13 polyion complex micelles,14, 15 block ionomer complex micelles16, 17 and interpolyelectrolyte complexes (IPEC),18 has been extensively documented in previous work 12. 13 PAAm and PEO were chosen as corona blocks on the basis of published compatibility data 19–21.…”

“…The reversibility and responsive nature of this type of micelle, so‐called complex coacervate core micelles (C3Ms),11–13 polyion complex micelles,14, 15 block ionomer complex micelles16, 17 and interpolyelectrolyte complexes (IPEC),18 has been extensively documented in previous work 12. 13 PAAm and PEO were chosen as corona blocks on the basis of published compatibility data 19–21. From these reports, we estimate the Flory–Huggins interaction parameter χ PAAm,PEO to be about 0.05.…”