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Linear amphiphilic diblock and ternary triblock copolymers were synthesized by the RAFT method in three Successive Steps, using oligo(ethylene oxide) monomethyl ether acrylate, butyl or 2-ethylhexyl acrylate, and 1H, 1H, 2H, 2H-perfluorodecyl acrylate. The diblock and the triblock copolymers, which consist of a hydrophilic, a lipophilic, and a fluorophilic block, self-assemble in water into spherical micellar aggregates. Imaging by cryogenic transmission electron microscopy (cryo-TEM) revealed that the cores of the micellar aggregates made from these "triphilic" copolymers undergo local phase separation to form various ultrastructures, which depend sensitivity on the given block sequence. While the sequence hydrophilic-lipophilic-fluorophilic resulted in multicompartment cores with core-shell-corona morphology, the sequence lipophilic-hydrophilic-fluorophilic provided new "patched double micelle" and larger "soccer ball" structures.
Linear amphiphilic diblock and ternary triblock copolymers were synthesized by the RAFT method in two successive steps using a poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) macrochain transfer agent, butyl or 2-ethylhexyl acrylate, and 1H, 1H, 2H, 2H-perfluorodecyl acrylate. The diblock and the triblock copolymers, which consist of a hydrophilic, a lipophilic, and a short fluorophilic block, self-assemble in water into spherical micellar aggregates. Imaging by cryogenic transmission electron microscopy (cryo-TEM) revealed that the micellar cores of the aggregates made from these "triphilic" copolymers can undergo local phase separation to form a unique ultrastructure. In these multicompartment micelles, it appears that extended nonspherical domains, presumably made of nanocrystallites of the fluorocarbon block, are embedded in the hydrocarbon matrix forming the spherical micellar core. This novel internal structure of a micellar core is attributed to the mutual incompatibility of the fluorocarbon and hydrocarbon side chains in combination with the tendency of the used fluorocarbon acrylate monomer to undergo side-chain crystallization.