Polymersomes and Wormlike Micelles Made Fluorescent by Direct Modifications of Block Copolymer Amphiphiles

[摘要] Wormlike micelles and vesicles prepared from diblock copolymers are attracting great interest for a number of technological applications.Although transmission electron microscopy has remained as the method of choice for assessing the morphologies, fluorescence microscopy has a number of advantages.We show here that when commercially available fluorophores are covalently attached to diblock copolymers, a number of their physicochemical characteristics can be investigated.This method becomes particularly useful for visualizing phase separation within polymer assemblies and assessing the dynamics of wormlike micelles in real time.Near-IR fluorophores can be covalently conjugated to polymers and this opens the possibility for deep-tissue fluorescence imaging of polymer assemblies in drug delivery applications.

[学科分类] 材料工程