Robust Preparation of Worm-Like Micelles with Tunable Chemical Compositions and Surface Properties

Worm-like micelles are a type of highly anisotropic polymer nanostructure that have found promising applications in materials science. However, to precisely tailor the chemical compositions of worm-like micelles without sacrificing their morphology is challenging. Herein, we demonstrate the feasibility of a kinetically controlled ring-opening metathesis polymerization-induced self-assembly (ROMPISA) approach for preparing worm-like micelles with tunable chemical compositions and surface properties. We first evaluated the effect of the glass transition temperature (Tg) of the core-forming blocks on the morphology of the resultant nano-objects and determined the critical Tg value for the preparation of worm-like nanostructures with an enlarged morphology region. The morphology could be predicted in this ROMPISA analysis by comparing the Tg of the employed core-forming blocks with the critical Tg value. Moreover, worm-like micelles with different surface properties, such as surface potentials, could be facilely synthesized by tailoring the chemical compositions of shell-forming blocks and fixing the core-forming blocks with Tg > 135 °C. This work provides a predictable and robust approach for worm-like nanomaterials that could find potential applications in the field of materials science.