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. 2025 Sep 30:e00622.
doi: 10.1002/marc.202500622. Online ahead of print.

Polymerization-Induced Micelle Gelation

Liangwei Lu  1 , Shuxiao Wang  1 , Wei Hong  1 , Jiaping Lin  1 , Liquan Wang  1
Affiliations

Polymerization-Induced Micelle Gelation

Liangwei Lu et al. Macromol Rapid Commun. .

Abstract

Self-assembly of polymer micelles offers a novel pathway to supramolecular structures such as 1D nanowires, yet gelation behavior remains underexplored. We demonstrated a universal copolymerization strategy using acrylic acid and methyl methacrylate to fabricate micellar hydrogels. Initiator concentration critically regulates gelation, i.e., low concentrations enable isolated micelle polymerization into compact 3D networks at the gelation threshold. Dissipative particle dynamics simulations corroborate experimental findings, revealing that multiblock copolymer formation at low initiator levels facilitates inter-micellar bridging via alternating hydrophilic/hydrophobic chains, while high concentrations yield diblock copolymers limited to isolated micelles. This facile approach enables scalable production of hydrogels for broad applications.

Keywords: dissipative particle dynamics; gelation; micelle; multiblock copolymer; rheology.

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