Synthesis Of Multicompartment Nanoparticles Of Abc Triblock Copolymers Through Intramolecular Interactions Of Two Solvophilic Blocks

A new strategy to synthesize multicompartment block copolymer nanoparticles (MCBNs) of poly(4-vinylpyridine)-block-polystyrene-block-poly(4-hydroxystyrene) (P4VP-b-PS-b-P4HS) combining the polymerization-induced self-assembly (PISA) of linear ABC triblock copolymers and the intramolecular complexation through hydrogen bonding between the poly(4-vinylpyridine) (P4VP) and poly(4-hydroxystyrene) (P4HS) blocks is proposed. These MCBNs contain a polystyrene (PS) core of about 30 nm and the dispersed 3-5 nm microdomains of the P4VP/P4HS complexes on the solvophobic PS core, in which the size of the dispersed P4VP/P4HS microdomains increases with the polymerization degree (DP) of the P4HS block. The successful synthesis of MCBNs is ascribed to the intramolecular interactions via hydrogen bonding between the P4HS and P4VP blocks confined within the triblock copolymer nanopartides'. The strategy affords the efficient synthesis of MCBNs and avoids the application of the ABC miktoarm terpolymers and the fluorinated ABC triblock copolymers.