Effect of Surfactants On the Morphology of Self-Assembly Poly(styrene-co-acrylic acid) with Ployvinylpyrrolidone in Aqueous Solution

Much attention on polymeric self-assembly has been paid on the block polymers, however, this paper is focused on amphiphilic random copolymers poly(styrene-co-acrylic acid)(P(St-co-AA))with different monomer ratio, which were assembled with ployvinylpyrrolidone(PVP)into micelle in aqueous media. The effect of surfactant on the morphology of the micelle were investigated in a great detail. TEM shows a core-shell micelle was formed with an average particle diameter of 200 nm. The wall become thicker with increasing acrylic acid monomer ratio. The wall thickness can also increase and the micelles become smaller in the presence of sodium dodecyl sulfate(SDS). The micelle went through a crew-cut like shape to a star-like shape and to a hollow vesicles with increasing concentration of hexadecyl trimethyl ammonium bromide(CTAB).