Self-assembled nano-wire of an amphiphilic biodegradable oligosaccharide-based graft copolymer in water

A kind of amphiphilic biodegradable oligosaccharide-based graft copolymer was prepared and characterized by IR, H NMR and GPC, in which each hydrophobic poly(ɛ-caprolactone) (PCL, average length DP ¯ ≈ 6 ) was controlled grafted onto the 3-position hydroxyl group of the short and water soluble maltoheptaose (MH, DP = 7) backbone. The self-assembled structures in water of the amphiphilic MH-g-PCL6 copolymer with a short main chain and controlled branched structure were investigated by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and dynamic light scattering (DLC). The graft copolymer with a unique asymmetric structure self-assembled into wire-like micelles with average diameters of 76 nm. And the length of the nano-wire increased with increased initial copolymer concentration in dimethylformamide. Thus, a new route to form self-assembled nano-wires with different lengths and interesting biodegradable properties was developed using amphiphilic oligosaccharide-based graft copolymer in water. The possible formation mechanism of nano-wire micelles was also discussed.