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RSC Advances This is an Accepted Manuscript, which has been through the Royal Society of Chemistry peer review process and has been accepted for publication. Accepted Manuscripts are published online shortly after acceptance, before technical editing, formatting and proof reading. Using this free service, authors can make their results available to the community, in citable form, before we publish the edited article. This Accepted Manuscript will be replaced by the edited, formatted and paginated article as soon as this is available. You can find more information about Accepted Manuscripts in the Information for Authors. Please note that technical editing may introduce minor changes to the text and/or graphics, which may alter content. The journal’s standard Terms & Conditions and the Ethical guidelines still apply. In no event shall the Royal Society of Chemistry be held responsible for any errors or omissions in this Accepted Manuscript or any consequences arising from the use of any information it contains. www.rsc.org/advances Page 1 of 9 RSC Advances Self-assembled multimicellar vesicles via complexation of a rigid conjugated polymer with an amphiphilic block copolymer Anbazhagan Palanisamy and Qipeng Guo* Polymers Research Group, Institute for Frontier Materials, Deakin University, Locked Bag 2000, Geelong, Victoria 3220, Australia. We report here a facile method for fabrication of multimicellar vesicles from self-assembled complexes of a flexible coil-like block copolymer and a rigid rod conjugated homopolymer. Manuscript Accepted Advances RSC RSC Advances Page 2 of 9 Journal Name RSCPublishing ARTICLE Self-assembled multimicellar vesicles via complexation of a rigid conjugated polymer with Cite this: DOI: 10.1039/x0xx00000x amphiphilic block copolymer Anbazhagan Palanisamy and Qipeng Guo* Received 00th January 2012, Accepted 00th January 2012 A viable method of encapsulating block copolymer micelles inside vesicles using a conjugated polymer is DOI: 10.1039/x0xx00000x reported in this study. Self-assembly and complexation between a amphiphilic block copolymer poly(methyl methacrylate)-b-poly(acrylic acid) (PMMA-b-PAA) and a rod-like conjugated polymer polyaniline (PANI) www.rsc.org/ in aqueous solution were studied using transmission electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy and dynamic light scattering. The complexation and morphology transformation were driven by electrostatic interaction between PANI and PAA block of the block copolymer. Addition of PANI to PMMA-b-PAA induced the morphology transformation from micelles to irregular vesicles through vesicles, thick-walled vesicles (TWVs) and multimicellar vesicles (MMVs). Among observed morphologies, MMVs were observed for the first time. Morphology transformation was studied as a function of aniline/acrylic acid Manuscript molar ratios ([ANI]/[AA]). Micelles were observed for pure block copolymer, while vesicles and TWVs were observed at [ANI]/[AA] = 0.1, 0.3 respectively. MMVs were observed at [ANI]/[AA] = 0.5 and irregular vesicles observed for molar ratios at 0.7 and above. Clearly, a conjugated polymer like polyaniline can induce the morphology transformation even at its lower concentrations and produce complex morphologies. Introduction leading to various morphologies and bypass the need to synthesize a specific block copolymer each time. Amphiphilic block copolymers self-assemble into a variety of Inspired from biological macromolecular assemblies, hydrogen Accepted morphologies in aqueous media or mixed organic solvents bonding16-18 in combination with ionic interaction, Van der depending on their composition and architecture.1 Potential Waals interaction and hydrophobic interaction were explored for applications of these self-assembled systems in various fields, polymer complexation studies. For flexible coil-like such as cosmetics, biomedicine, chemical process, catalysis, copolymer/homopolymer, copolymer/copolymer complexes, a agro-chemicals2-5 demands morphology control, as their bulk sophisticated control over the morphology have been physical properties depend on molecular assemblies. Advanced demonstrated both in bulk5, 16 and in solution.19 However, the polymerization techniques such as anionic or living radical complexation and self-assembly behaviour of flexible polymerization were used to synthesize block copolymers of copolymers with rod-like homopolymers need to be explored. complex molecular architectures to tune their self-assembly.6 For Unlike traditional coil type polymers, rod-like polymers instance, Eri Yoshida have studied polymerization-induced self- aggregate into liquid-crystalline domains and produce distinctly assembly of an amphiphilic random block copolymer Advances different morphologies.20 Most of the natural or synthetic (poly(methyl methacrylate)-b-poly(methyl methacrylate- materials such as helical proteins, polysaccharides, random-methacrylic acid)) in aqueous methanol solution.7, 8 microtubules, polyamides, polyisocyanates, etc. adopt self- Various morphologies including giant vesicles were observed assembled rigid chain conformations to be a functional upon changing the hydrophobic-hydrophilic ratio,9 and detailed structure.21 Incorporation of these rigid polymers into flexible mechanism of morphology transformation were also reported.10 RSC block copolymer through complexation may exhibit rich self- In parallel to these synthetic methods, morphology control has assembly behaviour. also been achieved through polymer complexation via non- Conducting polymers are blended with flexible polyelectrolytes covalent interactions,11 varying solution conditions,12 and adding to overcome their inherent disadvantages such as rigidity and ions13. Through judicious selection of polymer components, non- solubility.22 Heteroatomic conducting polymers such as covalent interactions such as hydrogen bonding,14 metal polypyrrole (PPY), polyaniline (PANI), poly (3, 4- coordination15 can be utilized to produce polymer complexes This journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry 2013 J. Name., 2013, 00, 1‐3 | 1 Page 3 of 9 RSC Advances ARTICLE Journal Name ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT) etc. can form Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and UV-visible interpolyelectrolyte complexes (IPECs) with homopolymers or spectroscopic techniques. Spherical micelles, vesicles, thick- block copolymers in solution.23 These blending components walled vesicles (TWVs), multimicellar vesicles (MMVs) and carry oppositely charged sequences that interact via electrostatic irregular vesicles were observed at different compositions. A interaction to form IPECs. PANI/polyelectrolyte complexes simple and viable method of preparing compartmentalized have been extensively studied due to their ease of synthesis, vesicles using conjugated polymer is introduced in this study. facile redox and pH switching behaviour, high environmental Compartmental vesicles and micelles have gained attention in stability and potential applications. Semi oxidized PANI recent years due its potential applications in various areas.34 emeraldine base (PANI-EB) was the most useful and soluble form of polyaniline studied for complexation with polyacid. Experimental section Rubner and co-workers prepared electrically conductive multi- layered thin films by exploiting the electrostatic interaction Materials between PANI-EB and polyelectrolytes.24 Tripathy and co- Polyaniline emeraldine base (PANI-EB) and polyacrylic acid workers reported helical conformation of PANI in presence of (PAA) were purchased with an average molecular weight Mw of DNA as polyelectrolyte template to form an intermolecular 5000 and 10000 from Aldrich Chemical Co., Inc. respectively. complex. The unique DNA/PANI complex has been used to The block copolymer PMMA-b-PAA with Mn (PMMA) = reversibly control the conformation of DNA double helix.25 41000, Mn (PAA) = 10000 and Mw/Mn = 1.20 was purchased Amphiphilic block copolymers containing an anionic from Polymer Source, Inc. All the polymers were used as polyelectrolyte block and a neutral hydrophobic block has been received. Reagents were of analytical grade and used without used as micellar templates for preparing conducting polymer further purification. nanoparticles in an aqueous medium or in mixed solvents. Morphology of these nanoparticles was dictated via block Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) copolymer micelles as templates.22 TEM experiments were performed on a JEOL JEM-2100 More complex and fascinating nanostructures have been transmission electron microscope operating at an acceleration Manuscript prepared in dilute solution using conducting polymer as one of voltage of 100 KV. Aqueous solution of complex aggregates was the self-assembling components. Mathieu and co-workers deposited onto a carbon coated copper EM grid, after one minute, identified self-assembled chiral supramolecular structures via excess solution was removed using a piece of filter paper. Then, electrostatic binding of DNA and conjugated polymer.26 Solution copper grids were dried at room temperature and negative self-assembly of rod-coil block copolymers yielded helical staining performed using a 1% (w/v) aqueous uranyl acetate superstructures27, spherical, rod-like28 and fibre-like micelles.29 solution. The samples containing PANI were vapour stained Formation of liquid-crystalline domains in conjugated polymers using osmium tetroxide (OsO4) in addition to uranyl acetate due to π-π stacking interaction provides unique self-assembly staining. behaviour. For instance, spherical