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A double hydrophilic block copolymer was synthesized by controlled free radical polymerization, namely by the RAFT method, from a poly(ethylene oxide) macromonomer and a cationic acrylate. Stoichiometric complexes with sodium decanoate and with sodium perfluorodecanoate were prepared by self-assembly. Both complexes are soluble in water forming core-shell nanoparticles with hydrodynamic radii of 54 and 22 nm, respectively, and neutral zeta potentials. The complex containing decanoate decomposed upon dilution, while the complex with perfluorodecanoate is stable even against dialysis and in salt solution. Only the nanoparticles containing perfluorodecanoate show a strong contrast in small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS). It is produced from their cores that have an elliptical shape (short axes = 8.5 nm, long axis = 23.3 nm) and a sharp density transition to the shell. The cores exhibit an internal lamellar structure with a long period of 3.65 nm consisting of fluorocarbon rich lamellae (d(1) = 3.00 nm) and lamellae enriched in ionic groups (d(2) = 0.65 nm). These fluorinated nanoparticles coexist in physiological buffer with human serum albumin and fibrinogen without inducing aggregation. Moreover, the content of alpha-helix of these serum proteins increased when in solution with the fluorinated nanoparticles.

A series of nonionic, anionic, and cationic water-soluble monomers bearing the (meth)acrylate, (meth)acrylamide, or styrene moiety were polymerized in water by free-radical polymerization via reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT). Several new water-soluble RAFT agents based on dithiobenzoate were employed that are water soluble independently of the pH. One of them bears a fluorophore, enabling unsymmetrical double end-group labeling as well as the preparation of fluorescent-labeled polymers. The temperature-dependent stability of the new RAFT agents against hydrolysis was studied. Controlled polymerization in aqueous solution was possible with styrenic, acrylic, and methacrylic monomers; molar masses increase with conversion, and polydispersities are relatively low. But RAFT polymerization failed for an anionic itaconate. Whereas polymerizations of methacrylamides were slow at temperatures below 60 degrees C, such conditions proved favorable for the RAFT polymerization of acrylates and methacrylates, to minimize hydrolysis of the dithioester end-group functionality, and to improve the preparation of block copolymers.