Solution self-assembly of tailor-made macromolecular building blocks prepared by controlled radical polymerization techniques

This review describes the preparation of colloidal aggregates (spherical micelles, cylindrical micelles, polymer vesicles, multicompartment micelles, polyion complexes, schizophrenic micelles) using bottom-up self-assembly approaches. In particular, it focuses primarily on the self-organization of well-defined macromolecular building blocks (macrosurfactants, polysoaps, polyelectrolytes) synthesized by controlled radical polymerization techniques such as atom transfer radical polymerization, reversible addition fragmentation transfer polymerization and nitroxide-mediated polymerization. The goal of this review is to highlight that these versatile techniques of polymer synthesis allow the preparation of unprecedented nanostructures in dilute solutions. (C) 2006 Society of Chemical Industry.