Issue 40, 2022

Water-soluble copolymers and their hydrogels with pH-tunable diverse thermoresponsive behaviors enabled by hydrogen bonding

Abstract

Water-soluble copolymers of poly(acrylic acid-co-N-vinylcaprolactam) (PAN) and poly(acrylic acid-co-N-vinylcaprolactam-co-dimethyl acrylamide) (PAND) were synthesized and found to exhibit opposite, and pH-tunable, UCST (upper critical solution temperature) and LCST (lower critical solution temperature) thermosensitive solubility in aqueous solution, respectively. For PAN (UCST), the insoluble state is determined by hydrogen bonding between comonomer units (AA–NVCL and AA–AA), and the solubility is obtained on heating as these intra- and inter-polymer H-bonds are weakened, promoting the solubilization of polymer chains by water molecules. For PAND (LCST), the hydrogen bonding between comonomer units still plays the determining role, for which the hydrophobic H-bonded “complex” of AA–NVCL and AA–AA exerts a similar effect as a hydrophobic comonomer on the LCST of poly(dimethyl acrylamide) (PDMA), causing the hydration–dehydration transition upon heating of DMA segments in PAND. UCST and LCST hydrogels were prepared using PAN and PAND, respectively, and used to demonstrate pH sensibility-enabled information recording and opposite encryption/decryption processes through temperature change.

Graphical abstract: Water-soluble copolymers and their hydrogels with pH-tunable diverse thermoresponsive behaviors enabled by hydrogen bonding

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
11 Mha 2022
Accepted
14 Ndz 2022
First published
16 Ndz 2022

Polym. Chem., 2022,13, 5700-5706

Water-soluble copolymers and their hydrogels with pH-tunable diverse thermoresponsive behaviors enabled by hydrogen bonding

R. Cheng, J. Jiang, J. Hou, G. Li, J. Jiang and Y. Zhao, Polym. Chem., 2022, 13, 5700 DOI: 10.1039/D2PY01044E

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements