Abstract:
Giant vesicles prepared from the diblock copolymer polybutadien-b-polyethyleneoxide (PB-PEO) exhibit a shear surface viscosity, which is about 500 times higher than those found in common phospholipid bilayers. Our result constitutes the first direct measurement of the shear surface viscosity of such polymersomes. At the same time, we measure bending and stretching elastic constants, which fall in the range of values typical for lipid membranes. Pulling out a tether from an immobilized polymersome and following its relaxation back to the vesicle body provides an estimate of the viscous coupling between the two monolayers composing the polymer membrane. The detected intermonolayer friction is about an order of magnitude higher than the characteristic one for phospholipid membranes. Polymersomes are tough vesicles with a high lysis tension. This, together with their robust rheological properties, makes them interesting candidates for a number of technological applications.
Similar content being viewed by others
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
Received 2 March 2001 and Received in final form 15 February 2002
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Dimova, R., Seifert, U., Pouligny, B. et al. Hyperviscous diblock copolymer vesicles. Eur. Phys. J. E 7, 241–250 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1140/epje/i200101032
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1140/epje/i200101032