Amphiphilic diblock and triblock copolymers based on poly(2-methyl-2-oxazoline) and poly(D,L-lactide): Synthesis, physicochemical characterizations and self-assembly properties

Gaëlle Le Fer (1) , Clémence Le Cœur (1, 2) , Jean-Michel Guigner (3) , Catherine Amiel (1) , Gisèle Volet (1, 4)

1 ICMPE - Institut de Chimie et des Matériaux Paris-Est
2 LLB - UMR 12 - Laboratoire Léon Brillouin
3 IMPMC - Institut de minéralogie, de physique des matériaux et de cosmochimie
4 UEVE - Université d'Évry-Val-d'Essonne

A range of amphiphilic diblock and triblock copolymers based on poly (2-methyl-2-oxazoline) (PMeOx) and poly (D, L-lactide) (PLA) with various compositions and molecular masses were prepared combining cationic ringopening polymerization and click chemistry. Their hydrophilic weight ratios (f) covered a wide range of composition (21-77%). In water, these amphiphilic copolymers self-assembled to form, in the case of diblock copolymers, core-shell micellar structures with a dense PLA core and a hydrated PMeOx shell in the whole range of f values. The triblock copolymers formed micellar aggregates of finite sizes made of bridged micelles, the micelles being connected by some of the PLA end-blocks. Moreover, the micelles displayed original core-multishell nanostructures in a specific range of f values (48%), never reported for this kind of triblock copolymers. The amphiphilic copolymers of this study displayed a rich variety of controlled self-assembled morphologies which could be promising candidates for drug delivery applications.

Keywords: poly(2-methyl-2-oxazoline); Block copolymers; Micelles; Small-angle neutron scattering

Domains: Chemical Sciences

Gaëlle Le Fer, Clémence Le Cœur, Jean-Michel Guigner, Catherine Amiel, Gisèle Volet. Amphiphilic diblock and triblock copolymers based on poly(2-methyl-2-oxazoline) and poly(D,L-lactide): Synthesis, physicochemical characterizations and self-assembly properties. Polymer, 2019, 171, pp.149-160. ⟨10.1016/j.polymer.2019.03.037⟩. ⟨hal-02952302⟩