Angewandte Chemie - International Edition
Angewandte Chemie - International Edition
4 years ago

Direct Synthesis of Polymer Nanotubes via Aqueous Dispersion Polymerization of Cyclodextrin/Styrene Complex

Min Zeng, Xiaosong Wang, Meng Huo, Xi Chen, Liao Peng, Jinying Yuan, Lei Liu, Anchao Feng
We report a one-step synthesis of nanotubes by RAFT dispersion polymerization of cyclodextrin/styrene (CD/St) complexes directly in water. The resulted amphiphilic PEG-b-PS diblock copolymers self-assemble in situ into nanoparticles with various morphologies. Spheres, worms, lamellae, and nanotubes were controllably obtained. Because of the complexation, the swelling degree of polystyrene (PS) blocks by free St is limited, resulting limited mobility of PS chains. Consequently, kinetically trapped lamellae and nanotubes were obtained instead of spherical vesicles. During the formation of nanotubes, small vesicles firstly formed at the ends of the tape-like lamellae, then grew and fused into nanotubes with limited chain rearrangement. The introduction of host-guest interaction based on CDs enables the aqueous dispersion polymerization of water-immiscible monomers, and produces kinetically trapped nanostructures, which could be a powerful technique for nanomaterials synthesis.

Publisher URL: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/resolve/doi

DOI: 10.1002/anie.201709129

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