Aqueous suspension of amphiphilic diblock copolymer nanoparticles prepared in situ from a water-soluble poly(sodium acrylate) alkoxyamine macroinitiator

G. Delaittre , J. Nicolas , C. Lefay , M. Save (1) , B. Charleux (2)

1 IPREM - Institut pluridisciplinaire de recherche sur l'environnement et les matériaux
2 LCP - Chimie des polymères

The simple, one step synthesis of aqueous suspensions of amphiphilic nanoparticles is presented. Those particles are prepared in the batch heterophase polymerization of styrene or n-butyl acrylate, using a water-soluble poly(sodium acrylate) alkoxyamine macroinitiator. The nitroxide-mediated controlled growth of the hydrophobic block leads to the formation of poly(sodium acrylate)-b-polystyrene or poly(sodium acrylate)-b-poly(n-butyl acrylate) amphiphilic diblock copolymers, able to self-assemble in water simultaneously to the growth step. When the diblock copolymers become strongly asymmetrical, with a short poly(sodium acrylate) block and a long hydrophobic one, the formed hairy nanoparticles are analogous to amphiphilic diblock copolymer crew-cut micelles. © The Royal Society of Chemistry 2006.

Domaines: Polymères

G. Delaittre, J. Nicolas, C. Lefay, M. Save, B. Charleux. Aqueous suspension of amphiphilic diblock copolymer nanoparticles prepared in situ from a water-soluble poly(sodium acrylate) alkoxyamine macroinitiator. Soft Matter, 2006, 2 (3), pp.223-231. ⟨10.1039/b515267d⟩. ⟨hal-01563809⟩