Bisurea-Functionalized RAFT Agent: A Straightforward and Versatile Tool toward the Preparation of Supramolecular Cylindrical Nanostructures in Water

Gaëlle Mellot (1) , Jean-Michel Guigner (2) , Jacques Jestin (3, 4) , Laurent Bouteiller (1) , Francois Stoffelbach (1) , Jutta Rieger (1)

1 LCP - Chimie des polymères
2 IMPMC - Institut de minéralogie, de physique des matériaux et de cosmochimie
3 LLB - UMR 12 - Laboratoire Léon Brillouin
4 MMB - LLB - Matière molle et biophysique

We report a versatile and simple approach to produce cylindrical micelles by the direct dissolution of polymers in water. The developed strategy relies on a RAFT agent functionalized by a bisurea sticker that allowed to synthesize a series of α-bisurea-functionalized poly(N,N-dimethylacrylamide) (PDMAc), poly(acrylic acid) (PAA), polyacrylamide (PAM), and poly(2-(N,N-dimethylamino)ethyl acrylate) (PDMAEA) with number-average degrees of polymerization (DPn) varying from about 10 to 50. Their spontaneous self-assembly in water was studied by electron microscopy (cryo-TEM), neutron scattering (SANS), and calorimetry (ITC) analyses which showed that long cylindrical micelles are spontaneously formed in water. The crucial role of the bisurea sticker end-groups was established by comparison with the corresponding bisurea-free model polymers that only formed spherical micelles. Finally, we have shown that it is possible to trigger reversibly the assembly/disassembly of the nanofibers by pH changes.

Domaines: Polymères; Chimie

Gaëlle Mellot, Jean-Michel Guigner, Jacques Jestin, Laurent Bouteiller, Francois Stoffelbach, et al.. Bisurea-Functionalized RAFT Agent: A Straightforward and Versatile Tool toward the Preparation of Supramolecular Cylindrical Nanostructures in Water. Macromolecules, 2018, 51 (24), pp.10214-10222. ⟨10.1021/acs.macromol.8b02156⟩. ⟨hal-02357488⟩