Direct observation of time and temperature dependent transition from spherical micelles to vesicles

摘要

An interesting transition from spherical micelles to vesicles, which was time and temperature dependent, was observed for the first time; it is tentatively attributed to the thermal hysteresis of temperature-responsive poly(N-isopropylacrylamide).rnMicelles and vesicles represent the two most important classes of self-assembled structures that can be formed by amphiphiles in selective solvents. Unlike micelles with a core-shell structure, vesicles are hollow spheres enclosed by a bilayer of the amphiphiles.rnTo our best knowledge, vesicles are commonly prepared in mixed solvents by controlling the mixing ratio of water and organic solvent for dissolving the block copolymer.