Vesicles of double hydrophilic pullulan and poly(acrylamide) block copolymers: a combination of synthetic- and bio-derived blocks

Jochen Willersinn,Anna Bogomolova,Marc Brunet Cabré,Bernhard V K J Schmidt

doi:10.1039/c6py02212j

Jochen Willersinn, Anna Bogomolova + Show 2 more

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https://doi.org/10.1039/c6py02212j

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Abstract

The formation of vesicular structures with average diameters from 200 to 300 nm consisting of double hydrophilic diblock copolymers pullulan-b-poly(N,N-dimethylacrylamide) and pullulan-b-poly(N-ethylacrylamide) in aqueous solution is described.

Highlights

Block copolymer self-assembly has been an important topic in polymer science in the last few decades, e.g. in bulk or in solution.[1,2] In solution micelles or vesicles of amphiphilic block copolymers are commonly studied.[3,4,5] Vesicles formed from amphiphilic block copolymers – the so-called polymersomes – are utilized for various applications e.g. in the biomedical field[6,7,8,9] or in sensors.[10]
Aqueous solutions of the synthesized block copolymers showed formation of completely hydrophilic vesicles that were observed via various techniques including dynamic light scattering (DLS), static light scattering (SLS), laser scanning confocal microscopy (LSCM), and cryogenic scanning electron microscopy (SEM)
The presence of the alkyne could not be directly detected by 1H-NMR due to an overlap of propargyl proton signals with the signals corresponding to pullulan

Summary

Introduction

Block copolymer self-assembly has been an important topic in polymer science in the last few decades, e.g. in bulk or in solution.[1,2] In solution micelles or vesicles of amphiphilic block copolymers are commonly studied.[3,4,5] Vesicles formed from amphiphilic block copolymers – the so-called polymersomes – are utilized for various applications e.g. in the biomedical field[6,7,8,9] or in sensors.[10] the polymersome interior or the membrane has been utilized frequently as a reaction environment.[11,12] Another important direction in polymersome research is the functionalization of the outer surface, which might be useful for molecular recognition in drugdelivery applications.[13,14,15] In addition, significant research focusses on the formation of shape anisotropic polymersomes that might have enhanced biomedical properties.[13,16]

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