Block and graft copolymer micelles in aqueous medium

3 Block and graft copolymer micelles in aqueous medium 

The classical methods for the preparation and the study of block copolymer micellar systems, mostly worked out in the 1980s and beginning 1990s, have been reviewed by quite a number of authors [ 1,5-12,15] so that in the present section it will not be necessary to cover this topic in detail. Our aim is rather to outline the basic concepts and to focus on some practical informations also worked out in our group. 

This section is therefore organized as follows after a recall of the typical micellar characteristics, of the various preparation and characterization techniques, the micellization behavior of the different copolymer types, for example non-ionic, anionic and cationic types in aqueous medium will be outlined. This part will mostly be devoted to block copolymers as their structures are in general better defined than for graft copolymers. 

Further, the unique features of double-hydrophilic copolymers, cross-linked micelles, complex formation will be examined in the last part of this section. 

the a egation or association number, for example the average number of polymer chains in a micelle, deduced from Ai and the molecular weight AT of the imimer with Z = Ar/M  

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