Size selection and stability of thick-walled vesicles

作者：Greenall M J^*

来源：Physics and Chemistry of Liquids, 2018, 56(3): 281-289.

DOI：10.1080/00319104.2018.1437916

• Polymers
• vesicles
• micelles
• amphiphiles
• self-assembly

In recent experiments, small, thick-walled vesicles with a preferred size were formed from copolymers where the degree of polymerisation of the hydrophobic block, N-B, was significantly greater than that of the hydrophilic block, N-A. We show that a simple mean-field theory can reproduce several aspects of the behaviour of these vesicles. First, we find a minimum in the free energy of the system of vesicles as a function of their radius, corresponding to a preferred size for the vesicles, when N-B is several times larger than N-A. Furthermore, the vesicle radius diverges as N-B is increased towards a critical value, consistent with the instability of the vesicles with respect to further aggregation seen in the experimental work. Finally, we find that this instability can also be triggered in our model by changing the interaction strength of the copolymers with the solvent.

• 出版日期2018