$p\mathrm{H}$-Triggered Block Copolymer Micelle-to-Micelle Phase Transition

$p H$ -Triggered Block Copolymer Micelle-to-Micelle Phase Transition

Li Xu, Zhichen Zhu, Oleg V. Borisov, Ekaterina B. Zhulina, and Svetlana A. Sukhishvili

Phys. Rev. Lett. 103, 118301 – Published 9 September 2009

Abstract

We present a first experimental observation and provide a theoretical interpretation of a $p H$ -induced micelle-to-micelle phase transition in aqueous solutions of spherical block copolymer micelles with polybasic coronas. Dynamic light scattering, static light scattering, and atomic force microscopy confirm sharp changes in micellar hydrodynamic size and aggregation number occurring in a narrow $p H$ range, $Δ p H < 0.1$ . In agreement with theory, $ζ$ potential measurements indicated an abrupt change in ionization of polymer chains in the micellar corona at the transition $p H$ .

Received 19 February 2009

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.103.118301

Authors & Affiliations

Li Xu¹, Zhichen Zhu¹, Oleg V. Borisov^2,*, Ekaterina B. Zhulina^3,*, and Svetlana A. Sukhishvili^1,*

¹Department of Chemistry, Chemical Biology and Biomedical Engineering, Stevens Institute of Technology, Hoboken, New Jersey 07030, USA
²Institut Pluridisciplinaire de Recherche sur l’Environnement et les Materiaux, F-64053 Pau Cedex, France
³Institute of Macromolecular Compounds, Russian Academy of Sciences, 199004 St. Petersburg, Russia

^*Corresponding author.

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Vol. 103, Iss. 11 — 11 September 2009

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Physical Review Letters

pH-Triggered Block Copolymer Micelle-to-Micelle Phase Transition

Li Xu, Zhichen Zhu, Oleg V. Borisov, Ekaterina B. Zhulina, and Svetlana A. Sukhishvili

Phys. Rev. Lett. 103, 118301 – Published 9 September 2009

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$p H$ -Triggered Block Copolymer Micelle-to-Micelle Phase Transition