Photochemically Induced Cyclic Morphological Dynamics via Degradation of Autonomously Produced Self-Assembled Polymer Vesicles

Abstract We report on the physico-chemical mechanism behind a dynamic morphological evolution process through which self-organized and self-assembled polymeric structures autonomously booted from a homogeneous mixture, evolve from nanosized micelles to micron-sized giant vesicles accompanied by periodic growth and implosion cycles when exposed to oxygen under light irradiation. The same system however resulted in formation of only nanosized objects or gelation with poor oxygen or with increase in temperature. Here we determine that such dynamic morphological evolution of our polymerization induced self-assembled amphiphiles is due to photoinduced chemical degradation within hydrated polymer cores which induces osmotic water influx and the subsequent morphological dynamics completely under the control of chemistry. This process also led to an increase in the population of the polymeric objects through system self-replication. This study offers a new path toward the design of chemically self-assembled systems and their potential application in the autonomous material artificial simulation of living systems.