Self-assembly behavior of copolymers with super segregated structure containing fluorinated segments

Copolymers with super segregated structure of hydrophilic methoxy poly(ethylene glycol) (mPEG) and fluorophilic poly(1H,1H,2H,2H-perfluorodecyl acrylate) (PFA) were prepared. And just because of this super segregated structure which was resulted from the extremely strong incompatibility between the two blocks, several interesting self-assembly behaviors of the copolymers were displayed and studied under different conditions. Transmission electron microscope (TEM) showed that with the increase of PFA in the polymerization system, the incompatibility in this super segregated structure became stronger, and the self-assembly behavior changed from ball-like or rod-like to vesicles, and finally collapsed to sheet-like. The self-assembly behavior changed likewise when the initial concentration increased. And the interesting formation of these barrel-like and spindle-like vesicles was finally studied with different cooling speeds. It’s finally found that with this super segregation structure, these new self-assembly morphology might be formed due to the extremely strong incompatibility between mPEG and PFA segments.