Polymer Micelles II

Dear Colleagues,

Various applications of aggregates formed from water-soluble polymers—such as drug delivery systems (DDS), diagnosis, separation, concentration, and catalysts—have been reported, but they are not the only ones that form aggregates: Various other polymers do so as well, such as amphiphilic random copolymers, block copolymers, graft copolymers, hyperbranched polymers, star-shaped polymers, and dendrimers. The driving forces of aggregate formation are hydrophobic, electrostatic, hydrogen bonding, and van der Waals interactions, and the structure of the aggregate, unimer micelles, core–shell spherical micelles, worms, and vesicles also play a role. Crosslinking of the core or shell and nanogel structures has also been prepared. In recent years, advances in synthesis techniques, such as controlled living radical polymerization, polymerization-induced self-assembly (PISA), and click chemistries have made it possible to design various polymers with a well-controlled structure. Furthermore, stimuli-responsive polymers are an important class of building blocks of polymers, and a large number of stimuli-responsive polymer micelles have been prepared. The aggregation state can be controlled by external stimuli, such as temperature, pH, light, magnetic and electric fields, salt concentration, specific chemicals, and biomolecules.

Back in 2017, we released “Polymer micelles”; the research environment around polymer micelles has changed rapidly since then, which is why we have decided to plan a continuation of that successful Special Issue, “Polymer Micelles II”. We hope that this new Special Issue will contribute similarly to the research field of polymer micelles. Both original contributions and reviews are welcome.

Prof. Shin-ichi Yusa
Prof. Pratap Bahadur
Prof. Hideki Matsuoka
Prof. Takahiro Sato
Guest Editor

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