Journal: Nature Communications

Article Title: Precise hierarchical self-assembly of multicompartment micelles

doi: 10.1038/ncomms1707

Figure Lengend Snippet: The red corona chains emerge from the black compartments, but are mostly omitted for clarity (TEM images, OsO 4 -staining except (b) RuO 4 , acetone/isopropanol fractions are given in v/v). ( a ) Scheme for reversible mesoscale colloidal polymerization (SBM9). Note that the branching points are composed of (SBS) 3 centres. ( b ) SBS-refined subunits in acetone/isopropanol (90/10), ( c ) (SBS) 2 'double burgers' formed by two SBS in acetone/isopropanol (80/20) and their polymerization ( d ) in acetone/isopropanol (50/50). ( e ) Scheme for reversible exchange of refined subunits in spherical MCMs (SBM3). ( f – h ) In situ switching of spherical MCMs. ( f ) 'Hamburgers' and refined subunits successively merge into ( g ) 'clovers' and ( h ) 'footballs' triggered by reduction of the solvent quality for the corona (addition of isopropanol from 90/10 to 60/40 to 50/50). Refined subunits clearly reappear upon the expansion of the corona (addition of acetone from 50/50 to 90/10). Scale bars are 200 nm and 50 nm in insets.

Article Snippet: Interestingly, the switching of the geometries and patchiness of spherical MCMs, as well as the reversible aggregation of linear MCMs across length-scales during the step-growth polymerization from monomers into mesoscale chains, is enabled by the straightforward manipulation of the corona volume fraction.

Techniques: Staining, In Situ, Solvent