S. Tanodekaew et al., ASSOCIATION AND SURFACE-PROPERTIES OF DIBLOCK COPOLYMERS OF ETHYLENE-OXIDE AND DL-LACTIDE IN AQUEOUS-SOLUTION, Macromolecular chemistry and physics, 198(4), 1997, pp. 927-944
Diblock copolymers of ethylene oxide and DL-lactide (EmLn copolymers)
were prepared by sequential anionic polymerisation and characterised b
y gel permeation chromatography (GPC) and C-13 NMR. Their association
and surface properties in aqueous solution were studied by surface ten
sion and dynamic and static light scattering. Comparison of the critic
al micelle concentrations (cmc) and micelle association numbers (N-w)
of the EmLn copolymers with published values for oxyethylene/oxybutyle
ne (EmBn) copolymers indicated a slightly lower hydrophobicity for a l
actide unit: i.e. L congruent to 0.75B. The tempera ture dependence of
the cmc of copolymer E42L12 was analysed to obtain a standard enthalp
y of micellisation Delta(mic)H(0) = 40 kJ . mol(-1).