| Affiliation: | 1. School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Shanghai Key Laboratory of Electrical Insulation and Thermal Aging, State Key Laboratory of Metal Matrix Composites, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China Institute of Green Chemistry and Chemical Technology, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang, China;2. School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Shanghai Key Laboratory of Electrical Insulation and Thermal Aging, State Key Laboratory of Metal Matrix Composites, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China;3. Institute of Polymer Materials, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang, China |
| Abstract: | Multilayer onion-like vesicles are valuable in cell mimics and biomedicine fields. However, as an excellent self-assembly precursor, the formation of multilayer onion-like vesicles by the self-assembly of hyperbranched multiarm copolymers (HMCs) were not reported due to the complex self-assembly dynamics. In this article, the self-assembly behavior of multilayer onion-like vesicles from HMCs was systematically investigated using dissipative particle dynamics simulation. The formation conditions for different kinds of vesicles were disclosed through the construction of the morphological phase diagram. Moreover, the formation mechanisms of the onion-like vesicles with different layers were revealed. We observed that it is the fusion mechanism in low concentrations and the molecular rearrangement mechanism in high concentrations. For low concentration, the law between the number of the membrane layers and the morphology of the aggregates in the fusion process was disclosed. Meanwhile, the membrane of the onion-like vesicles self-assembled from HMCs is monolayer structure and the thickness of each layer is decreased in sequence from inside to outside. The current observations have important guiding significance for its application in drug delivery systems. |
