Polymeric surfactants overview

In this overview, the first section will on general classification of polymeric surfactants. This is followed by a section on preparation of polymeric snrfactants, with particular reference to sugar-based molecules. This is followed by a discussion of their solntion properties. The next section will be devoted to the adsorption of polymeric snrfactants at the solid/liquid (S/L) interface, whereby a summary will be given to some of the theoretical treatments and the methods that... 

From this overview and from Hadjichristidis et al. [ 13] recently published book, it is evident that amphiphilic block and graft copolymers are an interesting class of polymeric surfactants. They are unique is that they self-assemble into nanoparticles with well-defined sizes and morphologies. 

In this chapter, we overviewed several fluorescence techniques suitable for studies of colloidal particles in aqueous solutions and discussed their application in the research of amphiphilic block copolymer micelles. Unlike surfactant micelles or phospholipid vesicles, amphiphilic block copolymer micelles have no sharp interface between the hydrophobic interior of the particles and the bulk solution, which results in greater heterogeneity of localization sites of fluorescent probes in the polymeric micelles and consequently in more difficult interpretation of data in comparison with surfactant micelles and phospholipid vesicles. 

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