Tunable Supermicelle Architectures from the Hierarchical Self-Assembly of Amphiphilic Cylindrical B-A-B Triblock Co-Micelles

摘要

Amphiphilicity represents one of the most important characteristics of nature's building blocks. Amphiphilic species, such as surfactants and block copolymers, have been shown to form a rich variety of self-assembled structures, including various types of micelles, bilayers, tubes, and vesicles.On a larger length scale, amphiphilic nanostructures, such as Janus and patchy particles, have been recently utilized to construct a variety of fascinating colloidal materials.A limited number of amphiphilic micelle architectures have also been prepared by methods including the self-assembly of ABC triblock copolymers, co-assembly of two different block copolymers, and nanotube-assisted synthesis, and have also been shown to provide a pathway to aggregate soft matter to form various superstructures, such as supermicelles, chains, nanotubes, and nanosheets. Nevertheless, the state of the art with these amphiphilic building blocks mainly involves the use of spherical particles.