Multicompartment micelles from hyperbranched star-block copolymers containing polycations and fluoropolymer segment

In this Article, we have investigated the self-assembly of a series of amphiphilic hyperbranched star-block copolymers to form multicompartment micelles in acidic aqueous solution (pH 3.0) or in a dimethylformamide/water (pH 3.0) mixture. These hyperbranched star-block copolymers were prepared via oxyanion-initiated polymerization process, using hydroxyl-terminated hyperbranched poly[3-ethyl-3-(hydroxymethyl)oxetane] (HP) as a macroinitiator precursor with multi-reactive sites. It was turned into oxyanion end-capped macroinitiator through the reaction with potassium hydride, and followed by a sequential addition of 2-(N,N-dimethylamino)ethyl methacrylate (DMAEMA) and 2,2,3,3,4,4,5,5-octafluoropentyl methacrylate (OFPMA). The resultant HP-star-PDMAEMA-b-POFPMA copolymers were characterized via H-1 NMR, F-19 NMR, and gel permeation chromatography (GPC). The analyses of transmission electron microscopy (TEM), dynamic light scattering (DLS), and microelectrophoresis confirmed that these copolymers could directly self-organize into supramolecular multicompartment micelles with different diameters, depending on the length of the PDMAEMA segment, which can be protonated in acidic aqueous medium. The measurement of the zeta potential gave further evidence of the aggregating structures for the multicompartment micelles.