Characterization of N,N-dimethylacrylamide/2-methoxyethylacrylate copolymers and phase behaviour of their thermotropic aqueous solutions

Dimethylacrylamide (DMA) has been copolymerized with 2-methoxyethylacrylate (MOEA) and solutions of the products were analysed by FTIR to yield derived reactivity ratios r_DMA = 1.11 ± 0.13 and r_MOEA = 0.63 + 0.10. The measured glass transition temperatures T_g of PDMA and PMOEA were 395 K, and 242 K, respectively. These and the values of T_g for the copolymers accorded well with the Fox relationship. Cloud point curves for copolymers in water were established over a wide range of concentration, solubility decreasing with increase in temperature. For these reversibly thermotropic solutions, the lower critical solution temperature (LCST) increased from 9°C to 80°C with decrease in content of MOEA in the copolymer from 91.1 mol% to 38.6 mol%.