Multicompartment Micelles from A2-star-(B-alt-C) Molecules in Selective Solvents

In recent years, multicompartment micelles have attracted wide attention due to their potential applications in drug delivery. In this study, we employ dissipative particle dynamics (DPD) to explore the formation of multicomponent micelles of A2-star-(B-alt-C) copolymers when a selective solvent is added, which is selective for A-blocks. Most interestingly, we find the various multicompartment micellar morphologies, such as multiple BC-mixed spherical micelles, segmented spherical micelles, segmented worm-like micelles, segmented short cylinders, B-C-B hamburger micelles, C-B-C hamburger micelles, Double helices, B-single helix, C-single helix, concentric layers within spherical micelles, coaxial short cylinders and coaxial bowl-like micelles. These multicompartment micelles are strongly affected by varying the solvent selectivity, solvent amount, copolymer composition and copolymer chain length.