Dissipative Particle Dynamics Study of the Formation of Multicompartment Micelles.pdf

1110 DOI: 10.1002/marc.200600187 Communication Summary: Dissipative particle dynamics simulation was per- formed to study the formation of multicompartment micelles from ABC star triblock copolymers in water. The study revealed some new morphologies that had not been observed before and also provided a direct visualization of the evolution of wormlike multicompartment micelles that follows the fusion process. Thus, this work provides molecular under- standing of multicompartment micelles which will be useful for the future rational synthesis of novel micelles. Multicompartment micelles formed from ABC star triblock copolymers in water by DPD simulations. Dissipative Particle Dynamics Study of the Formation of Multicompartment Micelles from ABC Star Triblock Copolymers in Water Jun Xia, Chongli Zhong* Department of Chemical Engineering and the Key Laboratory of Bioprocess of Beijing, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Beijing 100029, China Fax: (þ86)-10 E-mail: zhongcl@ Received: March 16, 2006; Revised: May 8, 2006; Accepted: May 8, 2006; DOI: 10.1002/marc.200600187 Keywords: block copolymers; computer modeling; dissipative particle dynamics; morphology; multicompartment micelle Introduction micelles consist of a water-soluble shell and a segregated hydrophobic multicompartment core, providing interesting It is well known that amphiphilic copolymers can self- morphologies for nanotechnology, in particular for nano- assemble into micel