Block copolymer vesicles - using concepts from polymer chemistry to mimic biomembranes

Owing to the increasing interest in self-assembled structures from block copolymer materials, we present here a review of recent literature concerning amphiphilic block copolymer vesicles. A vesicular morphology is applicable not only in such fields like delivery-release and biomineralization, but also has been utilized for preparation of nanoreactors and incorporation of biological macromolecules. The organization of this paper is the following: we first provide the readers with the overview of the current literature concerning the vesicle preparation and most commonly used experimental methods applied for vesicle investigations. Next, we consider the vesicle formation in more detail and present the morphologies resulting from the interplay of factors influencing vesicular structures in solution. Further, membrane properties will be reviewed, and finally, we wish to focus on our group's achievements in studying nanocontainers from both ABA and ABC amphiphilic block copolymers. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.