Hybridization of Poly(oxazoline) and Poly(ethylene oxide)-Based Amphiphilic Copolymers into Thermosensitive Mixed Micelles of Tunable Cloud Point.

Abstract

This paper reports the development in aqueous solution of mixed micelles of tunable cloud point temperature through blending in various proportions of two copolymers of different chemical natures. For that purpose, a lipid-b-poly(2-isopropyl-2-oxazoline) (lipid-b-P(iPrOx)) copolymer, self-assembling into thermosensitive micelles that phase-separate above a cloud point temperature of 38 °C, was blended in various proportions with commercial C18-b-PEOx. The latter was constituted of a hydrophobic saturated C18 chain and a hydrophilic poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) block with varying polymerization degrees (x) and does not have any thermosensitive properties on the studied temperature range for any value of x. The different blends were thoroughly characterized by light scattering and UV-visible spectroscopy, revealing that hybridization between both copolymers always occurred, independent of the PEO block length. The resulting mixed micelles present TCP values progressively increasing with the C18-b-PEOx proportion, from 38 to 61 °C. This study demonstrates the relevance of the blending approach to tune the phase separation of micellar systems by formulation rather than by more tedious synthetic efforts. Shifting TCP through this approach extends the range of temperature where lipid-b-P(iPrOx) can find an application.