The ability to control the micelle size of poly(lactic acid) and poly(ethylene glycol) (PLA–PEG) block copolymers is important for controlling their circulation in blood cell recognition, drug release and therapeutic effects. We successfully controlled the micelle size by changing the block number of copolymers (multiblock index). PLA–PEG multiblock copolymers with multiblock indexes ranging fr...

A statistical-mechanical treatment of the solubilization in micelle is presented in combination with molecular simulation. The micellar solution is viewed as an inhomogeneous and partially finite, mixed solvent system, and the method of energy representation is employed to evaluate the free-energy change for insertion of a solute into the micelle inside with a realistic set of potential functio...

This review describes the use of polymer micelle nanotechnology based chemotherapies for ovarian cancer. While various chemotherapeutic agents can be utilized to improve the survival rate of patients with ovarian cancer, their distribution throughout the entire body results in high normal organ toxicity. Polymer micelle nanotechnology aims to improve the therapeutic efficacy of anti-cancer drug...

The adsorption, micelle formation, and salting out of sodium dodecyl sulfate in the presence of sodium chloride were studied from the viewpoint of their mixed adsorption and aggregate formation. The surface tension of aqueous solutions of a sodium chloride-sodium dodecyl sulfate mixture was measured as a function of the total molality and composition of the mixture. Phase diagrams of adsorption...

We report the first molecular model for the transition states ~critical nuclei! that determine the rate of micelle formation and breakdown. These processes, and homogeneous nucleation of macroscopic phase separation are handled in a unified way. It turns out that with micelle-forming amphiphiles several new features appear that do not occur with ordinary phase separation. We predict that the ac...

We synthesize a series of block copolymers comprising a polystyrene (PS) block and an imidazolium-functionalized PS (IL) block and characterize their assembly properties. We use small-angle neutron scattering and dynamic light scattering to determine the micelle size and shape in dilute solutions and to assess the micelle interactions in concentrated solutions. By studying a series of copolymer...

We have designed a pathway for controlling the critical micelle concentration and micelle size of polyester-based systems. This was achieved by creating an array of different copolymers with semicrystalline or amorphous hydrophobic blocks. The hydrophobic block was constructed through ring-opening polymerization of ε-caprolactone, L-lactide, and ε-decalactone, either as homopolymers or random c...