Molecular simulation of the shape deformation of a polymersome
Molecular simulation of the shape deformation of a polymersome
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DOI：
10.1039/c9sm02165e
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发表时间：
2020-04-07
期刊：
影响因子：
3.4
通讯作者：
Loverde, Sharon M.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Chakraborty, Kaushik;Shinoda, Wataru;Loverde, Sharon M.
由两嵌段共聚物或多聚体组成的囊泡已被证明具有从药物输送到催化驱动纳米马达的多种应用。聚合体的形状可以对外界刺激，如光或溶剂作出反应。分子动力学模拟表明，聚合物囊泡内部体积收缩时的形状变化发生在两个不同的区域--拉伸区域和弯曲区域。该屏障被证明依赖于溶剂环境。这些结果表明，定制聚合物膜的弯曲模数可以作为一种设计方法来设计新的刺激响应性囊泡。
Vesicles composed of diblock copolymers, or polymersomes, have proven to possess numerous applications ranging from drug delivery to catalytically driven nano-motors. The shape of a polymersome can be responsive to external stimuli, such as light or solvent. Molecular dynamics simulations reveal that the shape change upon the contraction of the inner volume of a polymersome vesicle occurs in two separate regimes-a stretching regime and a bending regime. The barrier is shown to be dependent on the solvent environment. These results suggest that tailoring the bending modulus of polymer membranes can be used as a design methodology to engineer new stimuli-responsive vesicles.