The real-space two-dimensional self-consistent field theory(SCFT) is employed to study the free energies of micelles and vesicles constituted by binary amphiphilic diblock copolymer AB in homopolymer A.With an increasing volume fraction of copolymer AB,there are morphological transitions from circle micelles to oblate circle-like micelles,to a compound structure with inverted micelles in the inner center and micelles outer layer,and to vesicles.Special attention is paid to the role of the copolymer AB in controlling the free energies of the micelles and vesicles by examining the effect of the length ratio of A/B with the fixed whole chain length of the AB copolymer,the length effect of A or B block with the corresponding fixed length of B or A block,for one component of copolymer,and the effect of different amphiphile compositions for a binary-component copolymer system.The quantity η is provided to describe the asymmetric density distribution of amphiphiles between the inner and outer monolayers of vesicles,and to quantify the relative asymmetric extent of the density distribution between two species of copolymers in binary component vesicles.
The self-assembly of diblock copolymers confined around one square-shaped particle is studied systematically within two-dimensional self-consistent field theory(SCFT).In this model,we assume that the thin block copolymer film is confined in the vicinity of a square-shaped particle by a homopolymer melt,which is equivalent to the poor solvents.Multiple sequences of square-shaped particle-induced copolymer aggregates with different shapes and self-assembled internal morphologies are predicted as functions of the particle size,the structural portion of the copolymer,and the volume fraction of the copolymer.A rich variety of aggregates are found with complex internal self-assembled morphologies including complex structures of the vesicle,with one or several inverted micelle surrounded by the outer monolayer with the particle confined in the core.These results demonstrate that the assemblies of diblock copolymers formed around the square-shaped particle in poor solvents are of immediate interest to the assembly of copolymer and the morphology of biomembrane in the confined environment,as well as to the transitions of vesicles to micelles.
The pair interaction between bilayer membrane-coated nanosized particles has been explored by using the selfconsistent field (SCF) theory. The bilayer membranes are composed of amphiphilic polymers. For different system parameters, the pair-interaction free energies are obtained. Particular emphasis is placed on the analysis of a sequence of structural transformations of bilayers on spherical particles, which occur during their approaching processes. For different head fractions of amphiphiles, the asymmetrical morphologies between bilayers on two particles and the inverted micellar intermediates have been found in the membrane fusion pathway. These results can benefit the fabrication of vesicles as encapsulation vectors for drug and gene delivery.
