• Polymer(Korea)
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• v.33 no.5
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• pp.485-489
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• 2009

The temperature dependence of the structure of micelles formed by a deuterated polystyrene-poly(ethylene oxide) diblock copolymer (dPS-PEO) in heavy water were investigated with small-angle neutron scattering (SANS). SANS data were analyzed using the hard-sphere structure factor in combination with the form factor of a core-shell model. The micelle aggregation number and corona radius were obtained from the fits to the SANS data. The micelle aggregation numbers varied with temperature from 229 at $25^{\circ}C$ to 240 at $45^{\circ}C$, with a corresponding increase in the core radius. However, the shell thickness of micelles decreased with increasing temperature from 6.2 to 5.8 nm. These structural changes of micelles might be ascribed to the decrease in the hydration volume per hydrophilic group in the corona because of the increase in hydrophobicity of the PEO block with increasing temperature.