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Molecular brushes with poly-2-ethyl-2-oxazoline side chains and aromatic polyester backbone manifesting double stimuli responsiveness

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Abstract

Behavior of grafted copolymers composed of aromatic polyester (PAPE) backbone and poly-2-ethyl-2-oxazoline (PEOZ) side chains differing in grafting density in aqueous solutions was studied when heated at various concentrations and pH using static and dynamic light scattering and turbidimetry. Aggregates and individual macromolecules were registered in solutions at all times. It was shown that the aggregates of the brush with higher PEOZ side chains’ grafting density undergo compaction on heating below phase separation, whereas the size of the loose polymer brush aggregates continuously increases with the increase of temperature. Phase separation temperatures of both copolymers decreased with dilution. Strong influence of pH on the thermosensitivity of both samples was shown, the copolymer solubility being decreased with the acidity decrease. The nature of the pH effect is under discussion.

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Funding

The study was carried out with the financial support of the Russian Foundation for Basic Research in the framework of Research Project No. 18-03-00356_a.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Macromolecular Compounds, Russian Academy of Sciences, Saint Petersburg, Russia

    Alexander Filippov, Elena Tarabukina, Alisa Kudryavtseva, Mikhail Kurlykin & Andrey Tenkovtsev

  2. Saint Petersburg National Research University of Information Technologies, Mechanics and Optic, Saint Petersburg, Russia

    Emil Fatullaev

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  1. Alexander Filippov
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  2. Elena Tarabukina
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Correspondence to Elena Tarabukina.

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Fig. SI1

Dependence of Ss/Sf on pH for PAPE-g-PEOZ solutions at c = 0.0015 g/cm3. (PNG 14 kb)

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Fig. SI2

The values of RslowT/Rsmin at different c for sample 2. (PNG 12 kb)

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(EPS 46 kb)

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Filippov, A., Tarabukina, E., Kudryavtseva, A. et al. Molecular brushes with poly-2-ethyl-2-oxazoline side chains and aromatic polyester backbone manifesting double stimuli responsiveness. Colloid Polym Sci 297, 1445–1454 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00396-019-04558-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00396-019-04558-7

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