Langmuir, in press (DOI: 10.1021/acs.langmuir.1c02809)
Title: Modulation of Double Zwitterionic Block Copolymer Aggregates by Zwitterion-Specific Interactions
Author: Akane Shimizu, Emi Hifumi, Ken Kojio, Atsushi Takahara, Yuji Higaki
Publication Date: 2021/12/10
In response to the findings of our previous paper (Macromol. Chem. Phys., 2021), which reported microphase separation of a double zwitterionic diblock copolymer in the aqueous solutions, we addressed following question “Why the double zwitterionic diblock copolymers render phase separation in water even though the similarity of chemical structure, both blocks are hydrophilic polymethacrylate with zwitterion pendant groups?”.
The zwitterion-specific interactions in the double zwitterionic diblock copolymers were investigated by the modulation of the aggregates in response to various zwitterions. The unique zwitterion-specific interactions are rationalized based on the nature of zwitterions including partial charge density, dipole moment, and hydrophobic interactions depending on the charged groups and charge spacer length. The double hydrophilic block copolymer assemblies transformable with zwitterion-specific interactions are valid for the design of bio-compatible smart molecular systems for medical applications.
Akane Shimizu was in charge of this work. She is not clever, and pretty clumsy, but she has the character to keep working hard. Thus, she could be mature after the long effort, and finally became a dependable member of our team. She always supported the research activities of our laboratory and brightened up the team with her cute smile. It is my great pleasure that she has joined our laboratory as a start-up member. I wish her all the best in her future life.
I appreciate all coauthors who supported this project. I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Prof. Takahara and Prof. Kojio for encouraging our research under the Cooperative Research Program of “Network Joint Research Center for Materials and Devices”. Also, the DLS experiments could be never done without the kind support of Prof. Hifumi. We gracefully acknowledge Izumi Science and Technology Foundation and KOSÉ Cosmetology Research Foundation for supporting our research start-up in Oita University. I would like to express my sincere thanks to them for their kind support.
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