Title: vesicle polymerisation
Long Title: IUPAC Gold Book - vesicle polymerisation
DOI: 10.1351/goldbook.14341
Status: current

Definition
Polymerization inside the bilayer of a vesicle leading to formation of polymer inside the bilayer.

Notes
1) The bilayer may contain polymerizable and non-polymerizable molecules.
2) Usually phase separation occurs leading to entities with inhomogeneously distributed polymer (e.g., entities that contain a latex particle inside the vesicle’s bilayer).
3) The morphology of such entities is called "parachute" morphology, owing to similarity of their shape to the shape of parachute canopy.
4) In the case of reactive copolymerizing surfactants (i.e., surfmers) hollow spherical entities can sometimes be obtained with a homogeneous distribution of polymer in the bilayer.

Related Term
- surfmers: https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/14377

Source
- PAC, 2011, 83, 2229. 'Terminology of polymers and polymerization processes in dispersed systems (IUPAC Recommendations 2011)' on page 2244 (https://doi.org/10.1351/PAC-REC-10-06-03)

Other Outputs
- html: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/14341/html
- json: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/14341/json
- xml: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/14341/xml

Citation: Citation: 'vesicle polymerisation' in IUPAC Compendium of Chemical Terminology, 5th ed. International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry; 2025. Online version 5.0.0, 2025. 10.1351/goldbook.14341
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Accessed: 2026-07-14T13:12:20+00:00