Synthesis, self-assembly, and formation of photo-crosslinking-stabilized fluorescent micelles covalently containing zinc(II)-bis(8-hydroxyquinoline) for ABC triblock copolymer bearing cinnamoyl and 8-hydroxyquinoline side groups

Triblock copolymers (MPEG- b -PCEMA- b -PHQHEMA) bearing cinnamoyl and 8-hydroxyquinoline side groups with different block length are synthesized by a two-step reversible addition fragmentation chain transfer polymerization of cinnamoyl ethyl methacrylate (CEMA) and 2-((8-hydroxyquinolin-5-yl)methoxy)ethyl methacrylate (HQHEMA), respectively. The self-assembly of MPEG- b -PCEMA- b -PHQHEMA in mixture of THF and ethanol is investigated by varying the ratio of THF and ethanol. Spheric micelles with diameter of 63.7 nm and polydispersity of 0.128 are obtained for MPEG 113 - b -PCEMA 15 - b -PHQHEMA 17 in THF/ethanol with a volume ratio (v/v) of 5/5. The PCEMA inner shell of the resulted micelles is photo-crosslinked under UV radiation to give stabilized micelles. The complex reaction of the stabilized micelles with Zn(II) is investigated under different conditions to give zinc(II)-bis(8-hydroxyquinoline)(Znq 2 )-containing micelles. When the complex reaction is carried out in THF/ethanol (v/v = 5/5) or THF/toluene (v/v = 6/4) with zinc acetate, fluorescent Znq 2 -containing micelles are obtained without obvious change in diameters and morphologies. The fluorescent micelles exhibit green emission with λ max at 520 nm. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part A: Polym. Chem. 2016 , 54 , 1056–1064