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Wiley, Macromolecular Rapid Communications, 13(32), p. 972-976, 2011

DOI: 10.1002/marc.201100118

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Optically Triggered Dissociation of Kinetically Stabilized Block Copolymer Vesicles in Aqueous Solution

Journal article published in 2011 by Bin Yan, Jie He ORCID, Patrick Ayotte, Yue Zhao
This paper is available in a repository.
This paper is available in a repository.

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Abstract

We demonstrate a strategy for using an optical stimulus to trigger the dissociation of block copolymer (BCP) vesicles in aqueous solution. The BCP, comprising hydrophilic poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) and a block of poly(methacrylic acid) bearing a number of spiropyran methacrylate comonomer units (P(MAA-co-SPMA)), was allowed to firstly self-assemble into large vesicles in aqueous solution at pH = 3 with protonated carboxylic acid groups, and then become kinetically stable at pH = 8 due to the glassy vesicle membrane of P(MAA-co-SPMA). Fast dissociation of the vesicles was achieved through a cascade of events triggered by UV-induced isomerization from neutral spiropyran to charged merocyanine in the membrane.