Volume 30, Issue 18 pp. 1523-1532
Feature Article

Supramolecular Self-Assembly of Nonlinear Amphiphilic and Double Hydrophilic Block Copolymers in Aqueous Solutions

Zhishen Ge

Zhishen Ge

CAS Key Laboratory of Soft Matter Chemistry, Department of Polymer Science and Engineering, Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at the Microscale, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230026, China

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Shiyong Liu

Corresponding Author

Shiyong Liu

CAS Key Laboratory of Soft Matter Chemistry, Department of Polymer Science and Engineering, Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at the Microscale, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230026, China

CAS Key Laboratory of Soft Matter Chemistry, Department of Polymer Science and Engineering, Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at the Microscale, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230026, China. Fax: 86-551-3607348Search for more papers by this author
First published: 09 September 2009
Citations: 103

Abstract

Supramolecular self-assembly of block copolymers in aqueous solution has received ever-increasing interest over the past few decades due to diverse biological and technological applications in drug delivery, imaging, sensing and catalysis. In addition to relative block lengths, molecular weights and solution conditions, chain architectures of block copolymers can also dramatically affect their self-assembling properties in selective solvents. This feature article mainly focuses on recent developments in the field of supramolecular self-assembly of amphiphilic and double hydrophilic block copolymers (DHBCs) possessing nonlinear chain topologies, including miktoarm star polymers, dendritic–linear block copolymers, cyclic block copolymers and comb-shaped copolymer brushes.

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