Bishnu Bastakoti (Perez-Mercader Group) "Chemical Synthesis and Spontaneous Formation of Giant Polymer Vesicles"

Date: 

Thursday, May 4, 2017, 9:00am to 10:00am

Location: 

Naito Laboratory (Room 205), 12 Oxford Street

Abstract:

 

Polymer vesicles (polymersomes) are a synthetic analogue of liposomes. Block copolymers that mimic the lipid amphiphilicity can self-assemble into nano/micro sized polymer vesicles. Physicochemical properties of polymer vesicles such as stability, fluidity, permeability can be easily tuned due to the rich chemistry of block copolymers. In this talk, I will discuss the facile one pot synthesis of polymeric vesicles made of amphiphilic diblock copolymers through light mediated polymerization induced self-assembly and their potential applications. The growth of hydrophobic units at the end of hydrophilic chains forms an amphiphilic block copolymer that can undergo self-assembly in aqueous solution. By varying the molecular weight of the two blocks, higher order morphologies can be obtained.

See also: Chalk Talks