Dynamic light scattering and cryogenic transmission electron microscopy investigations on metallo-supramolecular aqueous micelles: evidence of secondary aggregation

Metallo-supramolecular diblock copolymers consisting of a polystyrene (PS) block connected to a poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) block by a bis(terpyridine)ruthenium complex (PS₂₀-[Ru]-PEO _y ) were used to prepare aqueous micelles. The length of the PS block was kept constant, while two PEOs of different molecular weight were used. The resulting hydrated micelles and aggregates were characterized by a combination of cryogenic transmission electron microscopy (cryo-TEM) and dynamic light scattering measurements. The results were compared to those obtained for a covalent counterpart (PS₂₂-b-PEO₇₀). Cryogenic transmission electron microscopy allowed visualization of the PS core of the micelles. Moreover, the aggregates result from clustering of individual micelles.     

STRUCTURE OF CRYSTALLINE DOMAINS IN SEMICRYSTALLINE BLOCK COPOLYMER THIN FILMS

Thin film morphology of a symmetric semicrystalline oxyethylene/oxybutylene diblock copolymer （E76B38） on silicon was investigated by tapping mode atomic force microscopy （AFM）. It is found that the nascent thin film is composed of multiple polymer layers having mixed thicknesses of L ≈ L0 and L ≈ L0/2 （L0 is the long period of the block copolymer in bulk） besides the first layer near the substrate. This shows that the crystalline domain in the block copolymer consists of double poly（oxyethylene） layers. Annealing leads to disappearance of the polymer layers with thickness L ≈L0/2, indicating that such polymer layers are metastable.     

Preparation of anion-exchange membrane based on block copolymers: Part 1. Amination of the chloromethylated copolymers

The anion-exchange membrane was prepared by a two-step synthesis: chloromethylation of the homemade block copolymers of polysulfone (PSf) and polyphenylenesulfidesulfone (PPSS) in the first step with subsequent amination by means of trimethylamine in the second step. The lowest measured area resistivities, equilibrated in 2 mol/dm³ KCl aqueous solution, were 4.5–3.30 Ω cm². The anion-exchange capacity reached up to 0.92 meq/(g-dry-resin), and the transport number of chlorine anion was in the 0.6–0.7 range.     

嵌段共聚物/均聚物共混体系的结晶行为 I. 非球状共聚物胶束的作用

将Leibler, Whitmore和Mayes等近期关于非晶嵌段共聚物“稀固体溶液”的理论应用于嵌段聚共聚物结晶型“稀固体溶液”结晶行为的研究。发现球状共聚物胶束既可起成核剂作用, 也可起抑制成核作用。报导了当共聚物胶束由球形变为非球形时, 共聚物胶束的上述作用都会发生较大的变化, 并根据Leibler和Mayes分别提出的球形和非球形胶束理论解释了这一实验现象。     

Bootstrapping the empirical distribution of a linear process

The validity of the moving block bootstrap for the empirical distribution of a short memory causal linear process is established under simple conditions that do not involve mixing or association. Sufficient conditions can be expressed in terms of the existence of moments of the innovations and summability of the coefficients of the linear model. Applications to one and two sample tests are discussed.     

Likelihood Inference under Generalized Hybrid Censoring Scheme with Comp eting Risks

Statistical inference is developed for the analysis of generalized type-II hybrid censoring data under exponential competing risks model. In order to solve the problem that approximate methods make unsatisfactory performances in the case of small sample size, we establish the exact conditional distributions of estimators for parameters by conditional moment generating function(CMGF). Furthermore, confidence intervals(CIs) are constructed by exact distributions, approximate distributions as well as bootstrap method respectively, and their performances are evaluated by Monte Carlo simulations. And finally, a real data set is analyzed to illustrate all the methods developed here.     

溶剂去除速度对于溶剂退火薄膜相形貌的影响

以聚苯乙烯-聚4-乙烯基吡啶(PS-b-P4VP)嵌段共聚物作为研究对象,采用DMF作为退火溶剂,以原子力显微镜(AFM)和透射电子显微镜(TEM)为表征手段,研究了溶剂退火后期溶胀薄膜中溶剂的去除速度对于薄膜相形貌的影响,发现通过改变溶剂去除速度可以有效的调控薄膜中的形貌.当薄膜厚度为35 nm时,DMF的快速挥发会导致薄膜中形成以PS为分散相的反转柱状相结构,当降低溶剂的挥发速度时,薄膜中形成了以PS为分散相的环状形貌,当进一步减缓挥发速度时,薄膜中将形成台阶状的片层结构;然而当薄膜厚度为55 nm时,溶剂退火后期薄膜中形成的是以P4VP为分散相的正常柱状相结构,在相同溶剂去除速度条件下薄膜相形貌变化较小.     

Direct synthesis of Poly(Ԑ-Caprolactone)-block-poly (glycidyl methacrylate) copolymer and its usage as a potential nano micelles carrier for hydrophobic drugs

Ring-opening (ROP) and enzymatic copolymerization (ECP) are among the most widely used approaches for synthesizing copolymers of polycaprolactone (PCL). It involves multiple-step reactions and the utilization of enzymes that make the process a lot more complicated, time consuming, and expensive. Atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) has been adopted to synthesize a novel amphiphilic copolymer in our study. The study presents a method to eliminate the ROP/ECP multiple steps in monomer polymerization thus making the process simpler and smoother. The synthesis of cationic polymer micelles copolymer of PCL-PGMA (polycaprolactone grafted poly glycidyl methacrylate) was carried out using direct functionalization of hydroxy group in crude PCL to achieve a higher degree of functionalization, i.e., 12.8% for macroinitiator. FTIR and ¹H-NMR confirmed the successful synthesis of the copolymer with better control over the molecular weight with a PDI (1.84). DSC and XRD results showed the reduction of crystallinity by 86.81%, making copolymer more compatible for drug delivery application. The synthesized copolymer was further converted to nano-micelles drug carrier having an average size of 96.08 ± 21.22 nm. The drug encapsulation efficiency achieved was 60.0 ± 1.7%, and nano-micelles rendered a slow and controlled release of naproxen with long-term storage stability.