Syntheses of amphiphilic diblock copolymers containing a conjugated block and their self-assembling properties

An efficient approach to the syntheses of amphiphilic rod-coil diblock and coil-rod-coil triblock copolymers was developed. Each diblock copolymer con sists of a perfectly monodispersed oligo(phenylene vinylene) covalently bon ded to a poly(ethylene glycol) block with a very low polydispersity (<1.05) . The structure and basic physical properties of these copolymers were char acterized by various spectroscopic techniques such as NMR, MALDI-TOF, GPC, DSC, UV/vis, and the fluorescence study. These diblock copolymers were show n to possess remarkable self-assembling abilities, and long cylindrical mic elles ttl mu m) were formed. TEM, SANS, and AFM studies showed that the cor e of the micelles has a diameter of similar to 8-10 nm and was composed of an OPV block. TEM and SANS studies revealed that these OPV-PEG micelles hav e a cylindrical OPV core surrounded by a PEG corona. Cryo-TEM and SANS stud ies indicate that fibers were formed even in very dilute TKF/H2O solutions. Since the conjugated OPV blocks exhibit liquid crystallinity and electric and optical properties, these micelles are interesting for studying the ele ctroactive effect in a nanometer scale.