Study of the internal structure of polymer micelles by anomalous small-angle X-ray scattering at two edges

Anomalous small-angle X-ray scattering with two marker elements was applied to the structural analysis of poly(4-vinylphenol rubidium salt)-block-poly(4-bromostyrene) (RbPVPh-b-PBrS) micelles, where Br and Rb were the markers for the hydrophobic core and the hydrated corona, respectively. By using two different markers for the hydrophobic core and the hydrated corona, the form factors of the core and corona were extracted separately from the scattering profile of the whole RbPVPh-b-PBrS micelles. The form factor of the hydrophobic core (the spatial distribution of Br) revealed that the core was regarded as a solid sphere with a smooth surface and a radius of 47 nm. Conversely, the form factor of the spatial distribution of Rb⁺ indicated that the shell of the RbPVPh-b-PBrS micelles was 15 nm thick.