Formation of non-spherical polymersomes driven by hydrophobic directional aromatic perylene interactions

Polymersomes, made up of amphiphilic block copolymers, are emerging as a powerful tool in drug delivery and synthetic biology due to their high stability, chemical versatility, and surface modifiability. The full potential of polymersomes, however, has been hindered by a lack of versatile methods fo...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nature communications Vol. 8; no. 1; pp. 1240 - 10
Main Authors: Wong, Chin Ken, Mason, Alexander F., Stenzel, Martina H., Thordarson, Pall
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 01.11.2017
Nature Publishing Group
Nature Portfolio
Subjects:
639/638/455/941
639/638/541/966
Access control
Biology
Block copolymers
Control methods
Copolymers
Drug delivery
Drug delivery systems
Humanities and Social Sciences
Hydrophobicity
Membrane structure
Membrane structures
Morphology
multidisciplinary
Organic chemistry
Polymerization
Polymers
Science
Science (multidisciplinary)
Self-assembly
Shape control
Solvation
Solvents
Surface stability
Synthetic biology
ISSN:2041-1723, 2041-1723
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:Polymersomes, made up of amphiphilic block copolymers, are emerging as a powerful tool in drug delivery and synthetic biology due to their high stability, chemical versatility, and surface modifiability. The full potential of polymersomes, however, has been hindered by a lack of versatile methods for shape control. Here we show that a range of non-spherical polymersome morphologies with anisotropic membranes can be obtained by exploiting hydrophobic directional aromatic interactions between perylene polymer units within the membrane structure. By controlling the extent of solvation/desolvation of the aromatic side chains through changes in solvent quality, we demonstrate facile access to polymersomes that are either ellipsoidal or tubular-shaped. Our results indicate that perylene aromatic interactions have a great potential in the design of non-spherical polymersomes and other structurally complex self-assembled polymer structures. Polymersomes have become a powerful tool in drug delivery and synthetic biology, but their use can be restricted by a lack of versatile methods for shape control. Here the authors demonstrate access to a range of non-spherical polymersome morphologies by exploiting hydrophobic directional aromatic perylene interactions within the membrane structure.
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ISSN:2041-1723
2041-1723
DOI:10.1038/s41467-017-01372-z