Quantitative Evaluation of Hydrophilic-Hydrophobic Interaction in Amphiphilic Polymers

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Self-assembly of novel amphiphilic polymers containing silicon or fluorine atoms were investigated in detail. Small angle X-ray and neutron scattering techniques were employed for the analysis of the polymer aggregates in solution and X-ray reflectivity measurements were applied to the study of the polymer monolayers at the air-water interface. A comb-like amphiphilic polysilacyclobutane (SB) with hydrophilic polyoxyethylene side chains dissolved as a single molecule in methanol or water. contrast, a 1 : 1 block copolymer composed of hydrophobic SB and hydrophilic 2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate (HEMA) or a 1 : 1 block copolymer composed of hydrophobic polystyrene and hydrophilic poly (3-hydroxymethylsilacyclobutane) formed micelles with hydrophobic core in methanol. Similarly they formed reversed-micelles with hydrophilic core in toluene. A 1 : 1 block copolymer composed of SB and HEMA formed uniform and stable monolayer at the water surface. A water-soluble vinyl ether block copolymer consisting of a short water-insoluble fluorinated segment and a long water-soluble polar segment formed core-shelled micelles in water as in the same way of non-fluorinated block copolymers. It is worth noting that the micelles formed by the fluorine-containing block copolymer could selectively solubilize fluorinated compounds from the mixture of fluorinated and non-fluorinated water-insoluble compounds. These results provided useful and important information for the evaluation of the hydrophilic-hydrophobic interaction of amphiphilic polymers.