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Royal Society of Chemistry, Soft Matter, 16(5), p. 3086

DOI: 10.1039/b907628j

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On the mechanism of formation of vesicles from poly(ethylene oxide)-block-poly(caprolactone) copolymers

This paper was not found in any repository, but could be made available legally by the author.
This paper was not found in any repository, but could be made available legally by the author.

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Abstract

Micelles, worm-like micelles and vesicles were prepared from poly(ethylene oxide)-b-poly(caprolactone) block copolymersvia a solvent switch method, and characterised by light scattering, X-ray scattering and cryo-transmission electron microscopy. The volume fraction of ethylene oxide, as the hydrophilic part in these polymers, determined the morphology in dilute solution, with spherical micelles, worm-like micelles, vesicles and precipitate being formed as the volume fraction decreased. The mechanism by which vesicles were formed in these systems during sequential dilution of the initial THF-rich solution with water was probed. It was shown that vesicles formed via a sequence of morphologies. The transitions between different self-assembled structures were followed using dynamic cryo-TEM. The behaviour of the PEO-b-PCL system was compared with the well-studied poly(acrylic acid)-b-poly(styrene) system; the behaviour was shown to differ in the final stage during the transition from worm-like micelles to vesicles.