Bioinspired photo-core-crosslinked and noncovalently connected micelles from functionalized polystyrene and poly(ethylene oxide) homopolymers

摘要

In this paper, we report a simple and effective method for the preparation of stable core-crosslinked micelles after the self-assembly of thymine-functionalized polystyrene (PVBT) and adenine-terminated poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO-A) homopolymers, and subsequent bioinspired photo-crosslinking of the thymine units in PVBT. We obtained "graft-like" copolymers from the interactions of PEO-A with the PVBT chains through complementary multiple hydrogen bonding in a common solvent (dimethylformamide) after the addition of selective solvents (H_2O and MeCN for PVBT and PEO-A, respectively). Stable micelles featuring PVBT as the core and PEO-A as the shell were formed via selective solvent pairs; they were clearly visualized using transmission electronic microscopy and staining techniques. The shapes and sizes of the core/shell micelle structures did not change after exposure to UV light, revealing the enhanced dimensional stability of these photo-core-crosslinked micelles.