Chemical controlled tangential growth leads to autonomous shell morphology

Polymersomes are widely used as biomimetic material and drug carriers. By copolymerizing with functionalized polymers, stimuli-responsive polymersomes can be synthesized, where the external field modifies the microscopic interaction and leads to a macroscopic morphology change. In this work, we study the autonomous shell dynamics undergoing a periodically reduction-oxidation reaction and build a general model to simulate the chemical reaction and the shell elasticity simultaneously. Based on the fact that the building blocks are hydrophobic in the reduced state and hydrophilic in the oxidized form, we design the shell with chemical controlled mechanical properties. We show that the shell undergoes homogeneous swell or heterogeneous deformation depending on the diffusion coefficient and stoichiometric factors. The dynamic morphologies provide a straightforward future design for new materials with desired functionality and shed light on the mechanism of the living system.