Micellization of poly(2-oxazoline)-based quasi-diblock copolymers on surfaces

The micellization on surfaces of two series of quasi-diblock copoly(2-oxazoline)s consisting of 2-phenyl-2-oxazoline (PhOx) segments linked to either 2-methyl-2-oxazoline (MeOx) or 2-ethyl-2-oxazoline (EtOx) segments is investigated in detail. 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 PhOx segments. The morphology and size of the surface micelles vary according to the fraction of PhOx in the copolymers. Moreover, it is demonstrated that the chemical nature of the more soluble MeOx or EtOx segments also has an influence on the morphology of the resulting surface micelles.