Abstract
Block copolymers are macromolecules composed of chemically distinct blocks that are covalently linked together. Molecular architectures that can be produced using the simplest combination of two types of monomers (A and B) include diblock (A-B) and triblock (A-B-A) copolymers. Chemical dissimilarity between the A and B blocks often confers an amphiphilic character to this class of materials. Particularly, there is a subset of block copolymers that contain both hydrophilic and hydrophobic blocks, and these compounds can be regarded as macromolecular analogs of conventional small molecule surfactants. A typical hydrophobic segment of a small molecule surfactant contains a linear hydrocarbon chain of oligomeric methylene (-CH -) of length usually less than twenty repeat units. Ethylene oxide (-CH -CH -O-) moieties commonly form the hydrophilic portion of many nonionic surfactants including the family referred to as C EO (oligo(ethylene oxide) monoalkyl ether), where the subscripts m and n denote the numbers of methylene and ethylene oxide repeat units, respectively. The past decade has witnessed great advances in the investigation and application of polymeric surfactants thanks to the development of synthetic methods for the preparation of model poly(ethylene oxide)-poly(hydrocarbon) materials such as poly(ethylene oxide)-poly(styrene) (PEO-PS), poly(ethylene oxide)-poly(ethyl ethylene) (PEO-PEE), poly(ethylene oxide)-poly(isoprene) (PEO-PI), and poly(ethylene oxide)-poly(butadiene) (PEO-PB).
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | Giant Micelles |
| Subtitle of host publication | Properties and Applications |
| Publisher | CRC Press |
| Pages | 417-452 |
| Number of pages | 36 |
| ISBN (Electronic) | 9781420007121 |
| ISBN (Print) | 9780849373084 |
| State | Published - Jan 1 2007 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© 2007 by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.