Co-assembly of patchy polymeric micelles and protein molecules
In these years, the developments in the synthesis and self-assembly of patchy nanoparticles have resulted in the creation of complex hierarchical structures. Co-assembly of polymeric nanoparticles and protein molecules combines the advantages of polymeric materials and biomolecules, and will produce new functional materials. In this research, co-assembly of positively charged patchy micelles and negatively charged BSA molecules is investigated. The patchy micelles, which were synthesized by using block copolymer brushes as templates, can make co-assembly with protein molecules into vesicular structures. The average size of the assembled structures can be controlled by the molar ratio of BSA to patchy micelles. The assembled structures are dissociated in the presence of trypsin. The protein-polymer hybrid vesicles will find potential applications in medicine.
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