Microfluidic production of monodisperse functional o/w droplets and study of their reversible ph dependent aggregation behavior

Contains fulltext : 92071.pdf (publisher's version ) (Open Access)7 p

Atom transfer radical polymerization of hydroxy-functional methacrylates at ambient temperature: comparison of glycerol monomethacrylate with 2-hydroxypropyl methacrylate

The homopolymerization of two hydroxy-functional monomers, glycerol monomethacrylate [GMA] and 2-hydroxypropyl methacrylate [HPMA], has been investigated using ATRP chemistry in aqueous, methanolic, or water/methanol solution. In methanol, both monomers are polymerized to high conversion with reasonably good control (final polydispersities are 1.30 and 1.09 for GMA and HPMA, respectively) within a few hours at 20 °C. "Self-blocking" chain growth experiments indicate good living character under these conditions. Addition of water leads to much more rapid polymerizations in both cases, but high polydispersities (e.g., Mw/Mn = 1.90 for a 50/50 water/methanol mixture) were always obtained with GMA. With HPMA, relatively low polydispersities (Mw/Mn = 1.17) can be achieved under the same conditions. Several new diblock copolymers were synthesized using poly(alkylene oxide)-based macroinitiators. One of these hydrophilic-hydrophobic diblocks proved to be thermoresponsive and aggregated reversibly in aqueous media

Recent trends in the tuning of polymersomes' membrane properties.

"Polymersomes" are vesicular structures made from the self-assembly of block copolymers. Such structures present outstanding interest for different applications such as micro- or nano-reactor, drug release or can simply be used as tool for understanding basic biological mechanisms. The use of polymersomes in such applications is strongly related to the way their membrane properties are controlled and tuned either by a precise molecular design of the constituting block or by addition of specific components inside the membrane (formulation approaches). Typical membrane properties of polymersomes obtained from the self-assembly of "coil coil" block copolymer since the end of the nineties will be first briefly reviewed and compared to those of their lipidic analogues, named liposomes. Therefore the different approaches able to modulate their permeability, mechanical properties or ability to release loaded drugs, using macromolecular engineering or formulations, are detailed. To conclude, the most recent advances to modulate the polymersomes' properties and systems that appear very promising especially for biomedical application or for the development of complex and bio-mimetic structures are presented