Role of Unimers to Polymersomes Transition in Pluronic Blends for Controlled and Designated Drug Conveyance

This study investigates the nanoscale self-assembly from mixtures of two symmetrical poly­(ethylene oxide)-poly­(propylene oxide)-pol­(ethylene oxide) (PEO–PPO-PEO) block copolymers (BCPs) with different lengths of PEO blocks and similar PPO blocks. The blended BCPs (commercially known as Pluronic F...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The journal of physical chemistry. B 2024-06, Vol.128 (25), p.6151-6166
Main Authors: Patel, Divya, Tripathi, Nitumani, Vaswani, Payal, Pérez-Sánchez, Germán, Bhatia, Dhiraj, Kuperkar, Ketan, Coutinho, João A. P., Bahadur, Pratap
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
antineoplastic agents
aqueous solutions
B: Soft Matter, Fluid Interfaces, Colloids, Polymers, and Glassy Materials
composite polymers
cytotoxicity
encapsulation
Gibbs free energy
hydrophobicity
liquid-air interface
micelles
molecular dynamics
molecular models
nanocarriers
neutrons
propylene oxide
quercetin
solubility
solubilization
spectral analysis
surface area
tensiometers
toxicity testing
viscosity
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Summary:This study investigates the nanoscale self-assembly from mixtures of two symmetrical poly­(ethylene oxide)-poly­(propylene oxide)-pol­(ethylene oxide) (PEO–PPO-PEO) block copolymers (BCPs) with different lengths of PEO blocks and similar PPO blocks. The blended BCPs (commercially known as Pluronic F88 and L81, with 80 and 10% PEO, respectively) exhibited rich phase behavior in an aqueous solution. The relative viscosity (ηrel) indicated significant variations in the flow behavior, ranging from fluidic to viscous, thereby suggesting a possible micellar growth or morphological transition. The tensiometric experiments provided insight into the intermolecular hydrophobic interactions at the liquid–air interface favoring the surface activity of mixed-system micellization. Dynamic light scattering (DLS) and small-angle neutron scattering (SANS) revealed the varied structural morphologies of these core–shell mixed micelles and polymersomes formed under different conditions. At a concentration of ≤5% w/v, Pluronic F88 exists as molecularly dissolved unimers or Gaussian chains. However, the addition of the very hydrophobic Pluronic L81, even at a much lower (
ISSN:1520-6106
1520-5207
1520-5207
DOI:10.1021/acs.jpcb.4c00561