Self-assembly of water-soluble core-functionalized poly(ferrocenylsilane)-b-polysiloxane block copolymers

嵌段共聚物的自组装可导致多种形态，如胶束或小泡。到目前为止，几乎所有制备的聚合物都是碳基的，因为有机金属聚合物直到大约十年前才能合成。最近，一些具有聚二茂铁基硅烷链段的杂化有机/无机嵌段共聚物被制备出来，它们在有机溶剂中自组装成球形或圆柱形胶束或纳米管。然而，水溶性聚(二茂铁基硅烷)嵌段共聚物仍然非常罕见。它们特别令人感兴趣，因为它们可能被用作生物材料。在这个项目中，我想研究聚二茂铁基硅烷嵌段共聚物在水溶液中的自组装。特别是，是否有可能将聚(二茂铁基-硅烷)-聚(硅氧烷)嵌段共聚物在正己烷中形成纳米管的能力转移到水溶液中，这将是一件有趣的事情。用短的乙二醇链对聚硅氧烷链段进行改性，可确保嵌段共聚物的水溶性。此外，使用水溶性生物分子或其他配体的核心功能化可能会打开将这些系统用作纳米反应器的可能性。研究它们的包封性和离子隔离性能也将是很有意义的，例如，产生水溶性磁管。

Block copolymer self-assembly can lead to a variety of morphologies, e.g. micelles or vesicles. Virtually all prepared polymers to date are carbon-based, since organometallic polymers were not synthetically accessible until around ten years ago. Recently several hybrid organic/inorganic block copolymers with a poly(ferrocenylsilane) segment have been prepared and they were shown to self-assemble in organic solvents into spherical or cylindrical micelles, or nanotubes. Water-soluble poly(ferrocenylsilane) block copolymers, however, are still very rare. They are of particular interest since they might be used as biomaterials. In this project, I would like to study the self-assembly of poly(ferrocenylsilane) block copolymers in aqueous solution. In particular, it would be interesting to see if it is possible to transfer the ability of poly(ferrocenyl- silane)-poly(siloxane) block copolymers to form nanotubes in hexane to aqueous solutions. Modification of the poly(siloxane) segment with short ethylene glycol chains should ensure the water-solubility of the block copolymers. In addition, core- functionalisation with a water-soluble biomolecule or other ligand might open up the potential to use these systems as nanoreactors. It would also be interesting to study their encapsulation and ion sequestering properties, resulting in e.g. water-soluble magnetic tubes.