Synthesis and characterization of amphiphilic graft copolymers with hydrophilic poly(acrylic acid) backbone and hydrophobic poly(methyl methacrylate) side chains

A series of well-defined amphiphilic graft copolymers containing hydrophilic poly(acrylic acid) backbones and hydrophobic poly(methyl methacrylate) side chains were synthesized by successive atom transfer radical polymerization followed by the selective hydrolysis of poly(methoxymethyl acrylate) backbone. Grafting-from strategy was employed for the synthesis of graft copolymers with narrow molecular weight distributions. Hydrophobic side chains were connected with the backbone through stable C-C bonds instead of ester connections. The backbone can be easily hydrolyzed to poly(acrylic acid) with HCl without affecting the hydrophobic side chains. The amphiphilic graft copolymers can form stable micelles in water. The critical micelle concentration was determined by fluorescence spectroscopy. The micellar morphologies were found to be vesicles by transmission electron microscopy and changed to spheres with the addition of NaCl.     

Synthesis and characterization of amphiphilic graft copolymer poly(ethylene oxide)-graft-poly(methyl acrylate)

A novel well-defined amphiphilic graft copolymer of poly(ethylene oxide) as main chain and poly(methyl acrylate) as graft chains is successfully prepared by combination of anionic copolymerization with atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP). The glycidol is protected by ethyl vinyl ether first, then obtained 2,3-epoxypropyl-1-ethoxyethyl ether (EPEE) is copolymerized with EO by initiation of mixture of diphenylmethyl potassium and triethylene glycol to give the well-defined poly(EO-co-EPEE), the latter is deprotected in the acidic conditions, then the recovered copolymer [(poly(EO-co-Gly)] with multi-pending hydroxyls is esterified with 2-bromoisobutyryl bromide to produce the ATRP macroinitiator with multi-pending activated bromides [poly(EO-co-Gly)_(ATRP)] to initiate the polymerization of methyl acrylate (MA). The object products and intermediates are characterized by NMR, MALDI-TOF-MS, FT-IR, and SEC in detail. In solution polymerization, the molecular weight distribution of the graft copolymers is rather narrow (M_w/M_n < 1.2), and the linear dependence of Ln [M₀]/[M] on time demonstrates that the MA polymerization is well controlled.     

Synthesis and characterization of an amphiphilic graft copolymer with a poly(acrylic acid) backbone and n-octylphenyl polyoxyethylene side chains

A novel, well-defined, amphiphilic graft copolymer was synthesized by the free-radical copolymerization of acrylic acid and an amphiphilic macromonomer, n-octylphenyl polyoxyethylene acrylate. This acrylic copolymer was characterized by IR and ¹H-NMR. The number-average molecular weight was determined by gel permeation chromatography to be 4.37 × 10⁴ (weight-average molecular weight/number-average molecular weight = 1.23). The graft copolymer exhibited good solubility in water and high surface activity at much lower concentrations. The molecules of the AA–C₈PhEO₁₀Ac copolymer formed polymolecular micelles at 3.0 × 10⁻⁴ g/mL. The aggregation of the copolymer was examined in aqueous solution by measurement of the fluorescence of 2-p- toluidinylnaphthalene 6-sulfonate as a fluorescent probe. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2008     

聚(丙烯酸-丙烯酰胺)接枝辛基酚聚氧乙烯醚丙烯酸酯两亲性共聚物的合成及表征

以辛基酚聚氧乙烯醚丙烯酸酯(C8PhEO10Ac)为大分子单体,丙烯酸(AA)、丙烯酰胺(AM)为共聚单体,采用大分子单体接枝共聚法,制备了一种两亲性接枝共聚物(AA-AM-g-C8PhEO10Ac),用静态光散射(SLS)与GPC联用技术测得接枝共聚物的分子量为9.51×105,用FTIR、1H NMR和TG/DTA等手段对共聚物的结构及性能进行了表征。采用透射电子显微镜(TEM)对聚合物在水溶液中的自组装行为进行了初步研究。结果表明,AA-AM-g-C8PhEO10Ac在水溶液中自组装,形成球型胶束,随着浓度增大,趋向于形成更大的自组装体。     

pH-induced conformational changes of loosely grafted molecular brushes containing poly(acrylic acid) side chains

A series of water-soluble loosely grafted poly(acrylic acid) (PAA) brushes with four different grafting densities were synthesized by the “grafting from” approach using atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP). Gel permeation chromatography (GPC) and ¹H NMR spectroscopy were used to provide evidence for formation of the well-defined backbones and the resulting brush copolymers. Atomic force microscopy was used to study the conformation of adsorbed brushes as a function of pH. The adsorbed molecules undergo a globule-to-extended conformational transition as the solution is changed from acidic to basic. This transition was monitored on a mica surface by imaging individual molecules with atomic force microscopy (AFM). The conformational behavior was compared with 100%-grafted PAA brushes. Unlike the loose brushes, the 100%-grafted molecules remained fully extended in a broad range of pH values (pH = 2-9) due to steric repulsion between the densely grafted side chains which is strongly enhanced upon adsorption to a substrate.     

Rheology control by modulating hydrophobic and inclusion associations in modified poly(acrylic acid) solutions

The rheology of modified poly(acrylic acid) (PAA) solutions can be tuned by controlling the inclusion interactions between α-cyclodextrins and alkyl hydrophobes. We demonstrate three modes of control: (1) using free cyclodextrins (CD) to displace hydrophobe-hydrophobe association in hydrophobically modified poly(acrylic acid) (HMPAA) polymers—which reduces fluid viscosity, (2) using competitive inclusion interactions where stronger SDS:CD binding can be used to ‘unmask’ CD:hydropobe inclusion interactions—which increases viscosity, and (3) employing HMPAA inclusion interactions with CD groups grafted to PAA chains (CDPAA)—which produces higher viscosities than purely hydrophobic association systems at the same concentration. The inclusion association between alkyl side-group in HMPAA and CD, either free or grafted onto PAA, obeys a 1-to-1 stoichiometry at low polymer concentrations (<1 wt%). In contrast to purely hydrophobically associating polymers, the CD:hydrophobe interaction is only binary, and, therefore, these associated networks should be ideal model systems to test theoretical predictions for associative fluids.     

Synthesis and characterization of amphiphilic graft copolymers with poly(ethylene glycol) and cholesterol side chains

Amphiphilic graft copolymers comprising monomeric units of methoxy poly(ethylene glycol) (mPEG)-acrylate, 2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate (HEMA)–cholesterol conjugates and HEMA were synthesized and their properties characterized. The value of the critical micelle concentration (CMC) for these copolymers is linearly proportional to the ratio of the number of mPEG–acrylates to that of the HEMA–cholesterol conjugates per macromolecule (N_PEG/N_c), which is the most important parameter which influences the formation of polymeric micelles. The latter show excellent colloidal stability and their sizes decrease with increasing CMC. Based on the quenching of pyrene fluorescence, the relatively high levels of the loading capacity of pyrene are attributed to the elevated hydrophobicity of the micelle core. The loading capacity of pyrene decreases with increasing CMC. The weight-average partition coefficient for pyrene in polymeric micelles increases with increasing polymer concentration because more micelles are available for accommodating pyrene. Copyright © 2004 Society of Chemical Industry     

Synthesis and stimuli-responsive properties of chitosan/poly(acrylic acid) hollow nanospheres

We report here a synthetic study on the formation process of hollow polymeric nanospheres based on a simple, core-template-free route, and the effects of polymerization concentration, shell cross-linking, pH, salt concentration and temperature on the size and stability of hollow polymeric nanospheres. The hollow structure of polymeric nanospheres is spontaneously formed by polymerization of acrylic acid monomers inside the chitosan–acrylic acid assemblies. It is found that (i) the hollow structure of nanospheres is stabilized by both physical cross-linking in the inner shell and chemical cross-linking in the outmost shell; (ii) the size of the hollow spheres can be adjusted over the range of 77–500 nm by controlling the concentration of chitosan–acrylic acid assemblies in the reaction system; (iii) the synthesized nanospheres are stimuli-responsive. The size of the hollow nanospheres can be manipulated by changing pH, salt concentration and temperature. Furthermore, with heating and cooling the variation in size of hollow nanospheres is completely reversible and reproducible; (iv) the surface of the hollow nanospheres obtained is chemically active, which provides the functional sites with chemical groups for subsequent chemical reactions at the surface.     

Salt-, pH- and temperature-responsive semi-interpenetrating polymer network hydrogel based on poly(aspartic acid) and poly(acrylic acid)

In this study, a novel salt-, pH- and temperature-responsive semi-interpenetrating network (semi-IPN) hydrogel, composed of poly(aspartic acid) (PAsp) and poly(acrylic acid) (PAAc), was prepared. PAsp/PAAc semi-IPN hydrogel being ionic in nature, the swelling behavior was significantly influenced by various swelling medium. The structure of the triply responsive hydrogel was studied by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and the salt-, temperature- and pH-sensitivities were investigated through measuring equilibrium swelling ratios in various environmental solutions. The results indicate that there is a structure of polyelectrolyte complex in the hydrogel, and that the responsive behaviors of this hydrogel to alternating changes in inorganic salt (different physiological bio-fluids), pH and temperature are improved because of the incorporation of PAsp. In addition, during the repeatable swelling and shrinkage period, the semi-IPN hydrogel shows suitable mechanical strength. The salt-, pH- and temperature-responsive hydrogel will have wider applications in biomedical areas.     

Ultra-fine polyelectrolyte fibers from electrospinning of poly(acrylic acid)

Ultra-fine polyelectrolyte fibers have been generated from electrospinning of poly(acrylic acid) in aqueous and DMF solutions. The fiber diameters ranged from 80 to 500 nm and increased with increasing solution concentrations and electrospinning voltages. The fibers generated from the aqueous solutions were more homogeneous in sizes, especially when NaCl or NaOH was added. Higher voltages in electrospinning of the aqueous solutions also resulted in fibers with larger heat capacity in the glass transition region, and higher dehydration temperatures. These polyelectrolyte fibers could be rendered water-insoluble by incorporating β-cyclodextrin (at 20 wt% of PAA) in the aqueous solution, then heat-induced crosslinking was performed at 140 °C for 20 min. The resulting hydrogel fibers showed strongly pH-responsive swelling behaviors.     

Swelling and morphological properties of poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) and poly(acrylic acid) (PAA) hydrogels in solution with high salt concentration

Understanding the swelling properties of hydrogels and how they affect the hydrogel's morphology is of fundamental importance in the development of hydrogel-based artificial muscles, bio-actuators, sensors and other devices. In this paper, the swelling behavior of PVA-PAA hydrogel films in saline water and in buffer solutions of different pH values was investigated. It was observed that the swelling factor of the hydrogel decreases when the ionic strength of the solvent solution increases. Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) revealed structures with different pore shapes and sizes depending on the type of solution used for hydration. In saline water, Energy Dispersive X-Ray (EDS) analysis indicated the formation of NaCl crystals within the polymeric network. Finally, the PVA-PAA hydrogel was used as an actuator to strain a fiber Bragg grating sensor, thus providing an indirect measurement of the pH value of the surrounding solution.     

Synthesis and viscoelastic behavior of water-soluble polymers modified with strong hydrophobic side chains

A new series of associating polymers were prepared by grafting highly hydrophobic side chains: poly(n-butyl acrylate), PNBA; poly(n-butyl methacrylate), PNBMA; and poly(N-(tert-butyl)acrylamide), PTBA of different sizes onto a poly(sodium acrylate), PAANa, backbone. Due to the strong hydrophobic character of the stickers, the dynamics of the associations is very slow as compared to more conventional water-soluble polymers modified with short alkyl chains and the physical associations mainly behave as chemical ones in the experimental conditions. As a consequence, all the copolymers readily self-assemble in aqueous solution forming clusters in very dilute conditions and then gels at higher concentrations. From dynamic measurements, it was shown that the copolymer solutions follow the same scaling relation η^∗ ∼ c^a, where a is a frequency dependent exponent. In these conditions, all the copolymer solutions exhibit a sol-gel transition which obeys the main rules of the percolation theory. For each copolymer, the critical gel concentration c_g depends strongly on the hydrophobic character of the stickers and a single master curve can be drawn by plotting the complex viscosity vs. the reduced concentration, c/c_g. Although the temperature dependence of the viscoelastic properties is very weak, due to the slow dynamics of the associations, it was clearly evidenced that the alkyl acrylamide derivative (PAANa-g-PTBA) exhibits a slight thermothickening behavior which contrasts with the thermothinning behavior of alkyl(meth)acrylate derivatives (PAANa-g-PNBA and PAANa-g-PNBMA). The opposite type of behavior is explained by the presence of the amide function which is known to play an important role in the LCST (lower critical solution temperature) phase diagram of N-alkyl derivatives.     

聚苯乙烯- 甲基丙烯酸甲酯接枝共聚物的合成

通过氯甲基化反应在线型聚苯乙烯（ＰＳ）的苯环上定量地引入氯甲基（—ＣＨ２Ｃｌ）,合成了氯甲基化聚苯乙烯大分子引发剂ＰＳ—ＣＨ２Ｃｌ,在氯化亚铜／α,α′－联二吡啶配合物（ＣｕＣｌ／ｂｐｙ）催化下,以ＰＳ—ＣＨ２Ｃｌ引发甲基丙烯酸甲酯（ＭＭＡ）聚合,合成了聚苯乙烯－甲基丙烯酸甲酯接枝共聚物。用红外光谱和核磁共振氢谱证实了接枝共聚物的结构,测定了接枝共聚物中ＰＭＭＡ支链数目、接枝共聚物的支链长度、接枝率及接枝效率。结果表明,用这种方法制备的接枝共聚物相对分子质量分布较窄,接枝率可控,接枝效率高达９２％～９８％。     

Temperature- and pH-sensitive membrane formed from blends of poly(vinylidene fluoride)-graft-poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) and poly(acrylic acid) microgels

Temperature- and pH-responsive membranes prepared from blends of poly(vinylidene fluoride)-graft-poly(N-isopropylacrylamide)(PVDF-g-PNIPAM) copolymer and poly(acrylic acid) (PAA) microgels in N,N-dimethylformamide (DMF) solution by phase inversion method. PAA microgels help PNIPAM chains largely enrich onto membrane surface. Furthermore, adding PAA microgels increases the porous size, porosity and hydrophilic property of the blend membrane. The membranes show temperature-sensitivity between 30 and 35 °C, and pH-sensitivity between pH 3 and 5 on permeating aqueous solutions. Meanwhile, the blend membranes keep good antifouling property even if one of the hydrophilic components becoming hydrophobic in response to temperature or pH stimuli, which is superior to single-sensitive PVDF membrane.     

Complexation behavior of poly(acrylic acid) and lanthanide ions

The complexation behavior of PAA and lanthanide (Ln) ions was schematically investigated. As pH increased, the complexation between PAA and Ln ions will greatly strengthen because COO⁻ groups exhibit much stronger interaction with Ln ions than COOH. When the pH values are higher than 2.5, where the ionization of PAA is about 2.0%, the PAA–Ln complex would precipitate out from the solution. The precipitation is a direct indicator for the complexation between PAA and Ln ions. Besides pH values, the complex precipitation is related with the concentration, the molar ratio, and the operation procedure. At the extremely low concentration, there is no polymer–metal complex precipitation but fluorescence spectroscopy reveals that the complexation between PAA and Ln ions still exists when pH value is higher than 2.5. When the molar ratio of PAA and Ln ions exceeds the certain level, it would produce soluble polymer–metal complex, even at the high concentration of Ln ions.     

Thermal, morphological and rheological characterization of poly(acrylic acid-g-styrene) amphiphilic graft copolymers

A family of amphiphilic poly(acrylic acid-g-styrene), P(AA-g-S), graft copolymers has been prepared by quantitative hydrolysis from poly(tert-butyl acrylate-g-styrene), P(tBA-g-S), precursors and evaluated by ¹H NMR and FTIR. The thermal characterization of these copolymers as a function of the number of grafted repeat units has been performed by thermogravimetric analysis, TGA, differential scanning calorimetry, DSC, and dynamic mechanical experiments. A higher thermal stability of the PAA main chain was observed by TGA as incompatible PS is grafted onto it. Small-angle X-ray scattering, SAXS, measurements have confirmed the existence of phase separation in the graft copolymers and the morphological behavior was analyzed. An increase on microdomains size is observed when the number of grafts diminishes. Moreover, the presence of polar functional groups in the backbone chain leads to the formation of hydrogen bonds giving rise to a substantial modification of the linear viscoelastic response compared with that exhibited by the unhydrolyzed precursory copolymers, as observed by analysis of melt rheological measurements.     

Synthesis of rapid responsive gels comprising hydrophilic backbone and poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) graft chains by RAFT polymerization and end-linking processes

A thermosensitive poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAM) grafted gel, which comprises hydrophilic backbone and freely mobile PNIPAM graft chains, was synthesized by reversible addition fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) polymerization and end-linking processes. Functional PNIPAM bearing dithiobenzoate end group (-C(S)S-R) was prepared first, and then it was reacted with divinyl compounds to obtain gel. In order to adjust the composition of the gels, two divinyl compounds, N,N-methylenebisacrylamide (BIS) and poly(ethylene glycol) diacrylate (PEGDAC), were used. The cross-linking polymerization mechanism was proposed. The swelling and deswelling kinetics of the hydrogels were measured. The gels exhibit rapid deswelling kinetics. At the same time, they show rapid swelling kinetics within 30 min, whereas a conventional PNIPAM-co-PEG-co-BIS gel with the same feed composition requires more than 10 h to reach swelling equilibrium.     

A study of blending and complexation of poly(acrylic acid)/poly(vinyl pyrrolidone)

Poly(acrylic acid) (PAA) and poly(vinyl pyrrolidone) (PVP) were chosen to prepare polymer complex and blends. The complex was prepared from ethanol solution and the blends were prepared from 1-methyl-2-pyrrolidone solution. DSC results show that the T_gs of the PAA/PVP blends lie between those of the two constituent polymers, whereas T_g of the PAA/PVP complex is higher than both blends and the two constituent polymers. TGA results show that degradation temperature, T_d, of PAA increases upon adding PVP in the blend, but thermal stability of the complex is higher than that of the blends as reflected by the higher T_d. Both FTIR and high-resolution solid state NMR show strong hydrogen bonding between PAA and PVP by showing significant chemical shift. The T_1ρ(H) measurement shows that the homogeneity scale for the blend is at ∼20 Å and that for the complex is ∼15 Å.     

Smart organic-inorganic nanohybrid stars based on star-shaped poly(acrylic acid) and functional silsesquioxane nanoparticles

pH- and salinity-responsive organic-inorganic nanohybrid stars based on poly(acrylic acid) (PAA) stars and N,N-di(2,3-dihydroxypropyl)3-aminopropylfunctional silsesquioxane nanoparticles are readily formed by mixing of aqueous solutions of the components. The interaction between stars of two different arm lengths, (PAA₁₀₀)₂₁, (PAA₂₀₀)₂₄, with water-soluble silsesquioxane nanoparticles is studied according to changes in pH and salt concentration. The original size of the stars is conserved during complexation according to dynamic light scattering (DLS) measurements and light scattering (LS) titration experiments, which exclude star-star aggregation or crosslinking during the interaction. The proposed interaction mechanism is based on hydrogen-bonding and Coulomb interactions. Cryogenic transmission electron microscopy measurements demonstrate the formation of nanohybrid stars. Small-angle neutron scattering experiments enable a quantitative determination of the fraction of bound nanoparticles and indicate an equilibrium between free and bound nanoparticles.     

双亲性氯化聚乙烯接枝共聚物的吸水膨胀性能

采用反相悬浮法制备了颗粒状接枝共聚物———氯化聚乙烯接枝丙烯酸(CPE-g-AA)、氯化聚乙烯接枝丙烯酰胺(CPE-g-AM)和氯化聚乙烯接枝混合单体丙烯酸、丙烯酰胺[CPE-g-(AA-AM)],并通过热压法制得接枝共聚物片材。考察了颗粒状接枝共聚物和接枝共聚物片材的吸水膨胀性能。结果表明,接枝共聚物的吸水性能与接枝单体的种类及其接枝率有关,相同接枝率的CPE-g-AA的吸水量比CPE-g-AM的大。当混和单体丙烯酸/丙烯酰胺的质量比为2/2时,所得接枝共聚物的抗盐性能最好。接枝共聚物片材可反复吸水膨胀,接枝率为62%的CPE-g-AA片材的二次吸水达到平衡时的吸水率和膨胀率分别为120%和41%。通过测定接枝共聚物的接触角表明,CPE-g-AA对水的润湿作用比CPE-g-AM明显。