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A study of aggregation behavior of a sulfobetaine copolymer in dilute solution

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Abstract

A copolymer poly(acrylamide-co-3-[N-(2-methacroyloylethyl)-N, N-dimethylammonio]-propane sulfonate) (P(AM/DMAPS)) was synthesized via conventional free-radical polymerization in aqueous media. Its aggregation and disaggregation in aqueous solution were studied as a function of copolymer concentration, ionic strength and ageing time at different temperature by gel permeation chromatography combined with laser light scattering (GPC-MALLS) technique, static and dynamic laser light scattering. GPC-MALLS analysis shows that at low copolymer concentrations (below 0.4 g.L−1), a decrease of both apparent weight-average molecular weight and radius of gyration is observed due to the dissociation of the interchain association. With increasing copolymer concentration, the interchain association is enhanced and both apparent weight-average molecular weight and radius of gyration increase. Correspondingly, the exponent ρ of the radius of gyration/molecular weight (Rg−Mw) relationship shows an increase from 0.29 to 0.6 with increasing copolymer concentration (below 0.4 g.L−1), and then decreases continuously to 0.33 with further increasing copolymer concentration. Dynamic laser light scattering studies reveal that the addition of a small amount of salts (below 0.1 mol.L−1) leads to the disaggregation of the intra- and interchain aggregation. Further addition of salts results in the enhancement of interchain aggregation. The influence of various anions on the aggregation behavior increases in the order Cl − < Br − < I −. The prolonging of the ageing time at 25 °C and 70 °C leads to the disaggregation of the interchain association of P(AM/DMAPS) copolymer in both deionzied water and 0.15 mol.L−1 NaCl solution.

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Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support from Major Research of the Ministry of Science and Technology, China(Grant No2008ZX05024-02-007) and the Scientific Research Project of Shandong Province (Grant No 2008GG2TC01011-12).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Colloid and Interface Chemistry, Ministry of Education, Shandong University, Jinan, 250100, People’s Republic of China

    Yebang Tan & Gui-Ying Xu

  2. School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Shandong University, Jinan, 250100, People’s Republic of China

    Yu-Ju Che, Yebang Tan & Jie Cao

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  1. Yu-Ju Che
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  2. Yebang Tan
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Correspondence to Yebang Tan.

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Che, YJ., Tan, Y., Cao, J. et al. A study of aggregation behavior of a sulfobetaine copolymer in dilute solution. J Polym Res 17, 557–566 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10965-009-9344-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10965-009-9344-1

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