A Soft Method for Developing Nanostructured Organic Biomaterials

We study new methods for the elaboration of nanoporous biomaterials intended to deliver encapsulated molecules via diffusion. The strategy consists of casting a polylactide biopolymer around templating micelles strictly using soft preparation methods. The micelles are polyion complex micelles prepared from double hydrophilic block copolymers and hydrosoluble polyamines in aqueous solution. We show that when the aqueous solvent is switched to an organic one, the complexes remain stable, although dynamic light scattering measurements show a larger micellar size. The data is compatible with a much extended brush of the micelles in the organic solvent. The study is in progress with the aim to produce porous structures on a nanometric scale by casting biopolymer films around the micellar entities in chloroform.