Fig. 1: Thermoreversibly assembled nanoparticles are composed of well-controlled BCPs synthesized using RAFT polymerization.
a, A schematic representation of the proposed mechanism for thermally mediated PS self-assembly described herein. Polymers are fully dispersed in aqueous solution at standard refrigeration temperatures and self-assemble homogeneously upon warming to room temperature. Red domains are thermoresponsive to form the PS membrane and blue are hydrophilic domains. b, BCPs used for blended formulations of PSs, with degrees of polymerization (subscripts) measured by NMR. End groups for pDEGEA-block–pHEA (D130–H70) are modified to incorporate either a single mannose moiety at the chain end or a bioinert hydroxyl moiety. All polymers are synthesized from the parent D130 homopolymer and therefore the membrane-forming segment is the same chain length in all formulations. NC refers to the cyano group (‘N triple bonded to C’). c, GPC for BCPs indicates monomodal distributions with low polydispersity (Đ <1.3), plotted as differential refractive index (dRI) versus elution time. D130–DM25 denotes pDEGEA-block–p(DMAEA) (pDEGEA-b–p(DMAEA)) before quaternization. d, A table of the full chemical characterization of parent D130 and subsequent BCPs. Mn (NMR) was determined before end-group modification to retain the RAFT chain end protons, and Mn and polydispersity (Đ) by GPC was measured post-modification. N/A, not available.
