Fig. 6
Hierarchically nanostructural orientation of axial and dendritic growth at microscales and macroscales. After neutralizing the aqueous solution and removing the by-products before dialysis, all the samples are prepared from the neutralized aqueous solution unless otherwise noted. a TEM images showing the self-assembled evolution of POSS-SS-(PEG)8 with the concentration of 1 mg/mL in pH 8 solutions for various times. The inset is the high magnification image of worm-like formations at 36 h, intuitively proved the interconnect arrangement of self-assemblies. b SEM, c AFM, and d Cryo-TEM images of the worm-like formations at 36 h. Scale bars: 0.5 μm. e The possible self-assembled mechanism of nanostructural growth with axial and dendritic directions. In this process, the large scale nanoparticles are still grown toward the axial orientation roughly at first, but finally formed the dendritic worm-like micelles with large size. The complex architectures, giant surface areas and reduced hydrophilic layers of the spheres provide more chances for the side-crosslinking to form the dendritic conformations. The orange cube represents the POSS core, the red ellipsoid represents the disulfide linkage and the cyan chain represents the PEG shell
