Preparation and applications of the polymeric micelle by polymerization-induced self-assembly (PISA)

Abstract

Polymerization induced self-assembly (PISA) has a high solid content, simple operating steps, and can generally achieve high conversion to monomers in a short time, which has been widely used in the preparation and adjusting to morphologies of polymer micelles self-assembly. In this article, the preparation and applications of the polymeric micelle synthesized by PISA were reviewed. The particle morphology can be adjusted by a variety of active polymerizations with different initiation mechanisms in the preparation of polymer micelles. Among them, free radical active polymerization is more practical. The reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) and atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) were highlighted. Additionally, different shapes such as spheres, worms, and vesicles can be obtained by RAFT in the preparation of nano-objects fields. Researchers construct the phase diagram to get the pure phase for applications. As one form produced by PISA, polymeric micelles are usually artificial nanoreactors for a series of organic and inorganic catalysis and can be used as drug delivery and target agents. Due to the increase in the ultimate tensile strength, RAFT is an optimal technique to produce thermoplastic elastomers.