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Soft Matter, 2008, 4, 2207 - 2212, DOI: 10.1039/b808151d

Spherocylindrical coacervate core micelles formed by a supramolecular coordination polymer and a diblock copolymer

Yun Yan, Ludger Harnau, Nicolaas A. M. Besseling, Arie de Keizer, Matthias Ballauff, Sabine Rosenfeldt and Martien A. Cohen Stuart

We investigated the hierarchical structure of complex coacervate core micelles formed by mixing a supramolecular coordination polymer and a diblock copolymer. Cryogenic transmission electron microscopy (cryo-TEM) on those systems was only possible for very dilute samples and suggested the existence of wormlike micelles or strings of spherical micelles (Y. Yan, N. A. M. Besseling, A. de Keizer, R. Fokkink, M. Drechsler and M. A. Cohen Stuart, J. Phys. Chem. B 2007, 111, 11662). Using small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) we investigated those mixtures with a concentration of up to 0.6 vol%. Depending on the charge ratio and the concentration the above mixtures was proven to build spherocylindrical objects of different sizes. In the case of charge neutrality spherical micelles are found. Thus, we confirmed by SAXS experiments that the structures seen by cryo-TEM indeed exist in solution.

Graphical abstract image for this article (ID: b808151d)