Surface micellization of poly(2-oxazoline)s based copolymers containing a crystallizable block.

Fustin, Charles-André [UCL] Lefèvre, Nathalie [UCL] Hoogenboom, Richard Schubert, Ulrich S. Gohy, Jean-François [UCL]

The micellization on surfaces of copoly(2-oxazoline) diblock copolymers consisting of a crystallizable poly(2-nonyl-2-oxazoline) (pNonOx) block linked to a poly(2-ethyl-2-oxazoline) (pEtOx) block is investigated. Those micelles are not pre-existing in the initial ethanol solution but are formed during the spin-coating process by the evaporation of the solvent inducing the precipitation of the less soluble pNonOx block. The morphology and size of the surface micelles vary according to the pNonOx molar fraction in the copolymers. Reorganization of the micelles and evolution of the surface energies after a thermal annealing are also studied.