Abstract
Herein, alkyl chain dependent self-assembly of choline carboxylate ionic liquids (ILs) and their effect on micellar characteristics of a star block copolymer (Tetronic®T1304) are reported. The ILs showed good aqueous solubility (low Kraft point) and formed spherical micelles. Small angle neutron scattering (SANS) analyses revealed a reduction in the critical micelle concentration (CMC) and elevation in the aggregation number (Nagg) upon increasing alkyl chain length of ILs. More importantly, ILs demonstrated good biocompatibility in murine erythrocytes and A549 cells, irrespective of the chain length.Furthermore, the effect of IL addition on micellar behaviour of T1304 was examined through thermal and scattering studies. We observed alkyl chain dependent increase in the cloud point (CP), critical micellization temperature (CMT), micelle size (Rh, Rc, Rhs) and Nagg. In association with T1304, long chain ILs (n = C12–C18) formed charged mixed micelles with a lower Nagg which showed enhanced solubilization of quercetin, a hydrophobic drug. Mixed micelles, composed with such biocompatible ILs, can further be tuned to explore their drug delivery applications.
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