MICELLES OF BLOCK-COPOLYMERS AND MODERN M ETHODS OF THEIR STUDY .2. DYNAMIC PROCESSES OCCURRING IN MICELLIZING SYSTEMS

The second article of the two-part review deals with the dynamic proce sses that may be encountered in block-copolymer micelles. The micelliz ation equilibrium represents a relatively slow dynamic process lasting from minutes to weeks. Two methods have been used here, viz, sediment ation velocity and steady-state fluorescence. A typical fast process o n a subnanosecond time scale is the migration of excitation energy in a micelle, which has been studied as a model for the controlled energy transport that takes place in biological macromolecular systems. Expe rimental approaches exploiting steady-state and time-resolved fluoresc ence in combination with some other methods, like quasielastic light s cattering, small-angle neutron scattering and NMR, are discussed.