A series of amphiphilic poly-N-substituted glycine (polypeptoid) block copolymers were synthesized by solid-phase methods with ionic functional groups located precisely along the chain. The peptoid amphiphiles self-assemble into spherical micelles upon dissolution in aqueous media. Micellar structures were confirmed by dynamic light scattering and cryoTEM techniques, and further investigated using small-angle neutron scattering (SANS) techniques. SANS measurements revealed that decreasing the distance of an ionic group from the micelle core-shell interface decreased both the micellar radius (Rm) and the aggregation number (Nagg). Rm and Nagg were found to scale with ionic monomer position (n) as n0.04-0.1 and n0.3, respectively. It is interesting to note that the chain density of the singly charged system remains constant with respect to monomer position, while the triply charged system scales as n0.18, indicating an enhanced electrostatic effect. This study highlights the possibility of controlling micellar structures via the adjustment of monomer sequence of the amphiphilic block copolymer.

Investigating the effect of ionic group location in the self-assemblies of sequence-defined peptoid block copolymers

255th National Meeting (2018)

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