The present study
examines the behavior of cyclic peptide
polymer
conjugates that have been designed to combine their self-assembling
ability via H-bonding with the properties of amphiphilic diblock copolymers.
Using a combination of asymmetric flow-field flow fractionation (AF4) and small-angle neutron scattering (SANS), we have uncovered
unique insight based on the population of structures established at
a 24 h equilibrium profile. Our results determine that by introducing
a small quantity of hydrophobicity into the conjugated polymer corona,
the resulting nanotube structures exhibit low unimer dissociation
which signifies enhanced stability. Furthermore, as the hydrophobicity
of the polymer corona is increased, the elongation of the nanotubes
is observed due to an increase in the association of unimers. This
encompasses not only the H-bonding of unimers into nanotubes but also
the self-assembly of single nanotubes into segmented-nanotube structures
with high aspect ratios. However, this influence relies on a subtle
balance between the hydrophobicity and hydrophilicity of the polymer
corona. This balance is proposed to determine the solvent entropic
penalty of hydrating the system, whereby the cost scales with the
hydrophobic quantity. Consequently, it has been suggested that at
a critical hydrophobic quantity, the solvation penalty becomes high
enough such that the self-assembly of the system deviates from ordered
hydrogen bonding. The association behavior is instead dominated by
the hydrophobic effect which results in the undesirable formation
of disordered aggregates.