Effect of Polymer-Metal Complexation on the Phase Transition of Thermoreversible Copolymer Gels
We have investigated the effect of transition metal complexation on the swelling behavior in water of a new terpolymer gel made from N-tert-butylacrylamide (N-t-BAm) as the hydrophobia monomer, 2-acrylamido-2-methyl-1-propanesulfonic acid (AMPS) as the hydrophilic monomer, and N,N′-methylenebisacrylamide (BisAm) as the cross-linker. At a critical balance of hydrophilicity and hydrophobicity, the terpolymer exhibited a sharp volume transition at 15°C. A shift in the transition temperature of the terpolymer was observed after complexation with trace metal ions. Electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy (EPR) suggested a tetrahedral structure for the complexes. We propose that the shift in volume transition temperature of the gel is due to subtle changes in the hydrophilic-hydrophobic balance resulting from the complexation of hydrophilic -SO3H groups of the gel with trace amounts of the metal ions.
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- 09 Engineering
- 03 Chemical Sciences
- 02 Physical Sciences
Citation
Published In
DOI
ISSN
Publication Date
Volume
Issue
Start / End Page
Related Subject Headings
- 09 Engineering
- 03 Chemical Sciences
- 02 Physical Sciences