Effect of liquid crystalline ordering on the self-assembly behavior of block copolymers in solutions

With the development of nanotechnology, the preparation of polymeric nanoparticles with finely controlled morphologies and structures has attracted extensive attention, and found widely applicable in various fields. Amphiphilic block copolymers can self-assemble into a variety of micellar structures, such as cylinders, vesicles, and spherical micelle in selective solvents. In particular, by introducing mesogenic ordering as a driving force, the solution-state self-assembly behaviors of liquid crystalline block copolymers LCBCPs can be significantly different. Since the properties of micellar aggregates are directly determined by their morphologies and sizes, it is very important to control the size of the micelles structure. In recent years, the precise control over the size of Polymer nanoassembly structures via simple and efficient methods has been one of the hot spots and difficulties in the field of chemistry and materials science. In this review, we summarized the research progress of solution-state self-assembly of LC BCPs for the past few years, mainly focusing on three aspects, including a comprehensive understanding of mesogenic ordering-driven self-assembly, precise assembly methods, and controllable hierarchical self-assembly.