One of the great challenges facing physics, chemistry, and material science today is to find a way to structure molecules so as to enable them to build functional superlatices by self-organization. In this way diblock copolymers are well-known for their ability to self-organize in a large variety of morphologies. In this context, the strategy that we adopted in our laboratory is based on the use of block copolymers added with entropic constraints (stars, miktoarms, cyclics, rod-coils, combs…) and/or specific interactions (H-bonding, chirality…). We will focus in this presentation on the self-organization of rod-coil diblock copolymers in bulk and in solution , , , (Fig.1). Our aim is to exploit the temperature and pH-sensitivity of polypeptides’ secondary structure to manipulate the size, the shape and the biological functions of the nanostructures and supramolecular assemblies formed by these block copolymers. ,
Laboratoire de Chimie des Polymères Organiques, ENSCPB-CNRS,