The Polymer Society of Korea

Abstract

The self-assembly of nanoscale particles into linear chains has attracted significant research interest. Block copolymer micelles are regarded as polymeric nanoparticles consisting of a corona and a core. In this presentation, we demonstrated the alternating linear assembly of block copolymer micelles via electrostatic interactions. Negatively and positively charged micelles were prepared using copolymers with charged corona blocks. Mixing oppositely charged micelles resulted in the formation of dimers, which induced residual charges at positions distant from the binding interface. These dimers then assembled into linear chains through directional electrostatic attraction. By varying molecular weights of copolymers, linear assemblies of large and small micelles with alternating sequences were synthesized through precise size control. In addition, we synthesized nanoparticles in the micellar cores of the chain, resulting in a linear arrangement of nanoparticles.