Intelligent crew-cut aggregates formed by thermosensitive block copolymers and their multiple morphologies.

The thermosensitive block copolymer poly(2-cinnamoylethyl methacrylate)-block-poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PCEMA-b-PNIPAAm) can form crew-cut aggregates with multiple morphologies under various micellization conditions. Spherical, rod-like, vesicular, lamellar aggregates, and large compound micelles were obtained from the block copolymers. The effects of different conditions, such as the copolymer composition, the nature of the common solvent, the initial copolymer concentrations, and the water content on the morphologies of the aggregates were studied in detail. The thermosensitive property of the aggregates was investigated through measuring the change of the dimension of the aggregates with changing the external temperature.