| Summary: | During the last number of years a variety of crystallization-driven self-assembly (CDSA) processes based on semicrystalline block copolymers have been developed to prepare a number of different nanomorphologies in solution (micelles). We herein present a convenient synthetic methodology combining: (i) The anionic polymerization of 2-vinylpyridine initiated by organolithium functionalized phosphane initiators; (ii) the cationic polymerization of iminophosphoranes initiated by −PR<sub>2</sub>Cl<sub>2</sub>; and (iii) a macromolecular nucleophilic substitution step, to prepare the novel block copolymers poly(bistrifluoroethoxy phosphazene)-<i>b</i>-poly(2-vinylpyridine) (PTFEP-<i>b</i>-P2VP), having semicrystalline PTFEP core forming blocks. The self-assembly of these materials in mixtures of THF (tetrahydrofuran) and 2-propanol (selective solvent to P2VP), lead to a variety of cylindrical micelles of different lengths depending on the amount of 2-propanol added. We demonstrated that the crystallization of the PTFEP at the core of the micelles is the main factor controlling the self-assembly processes. The presence of pyridinyl moieties at the corona of the micelles was exploited to stabilize gold nanoparticles (AuNPs).
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