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Counterion-Mediated Hydrogen Bonding Making Strong Polyelectrolytes pH-Responsive: Current Understanding and Perspectives

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  • Special Issue: Charged Polymers
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Abstract

The counterion-mediated hydrogen bonding (CMHB) is related to the hydrogen bonding between bound counterions and polyelectrolyte chains in polyelectrolyte systems, where the counterions can both electrostatically bind to the charged groups of polyelectrolyte chains and act as hydrogen bond donors or acceptors to form hydrogen bonds with the hydrogen bond sites associated with polyelectrolyte chains simultaneously. A large number of literatures illustrate that strong polyelectrolytes (SPs) are insensitive to pH, which severely limmits the applications of SPs as smart materials. However, our studies have demonstrated that the CMHB makes SPs pH-responsive. This perspective discusses the mechanism of pH responsiveness of SPs and the pH-tunable properties of SPs, based on the pH-controlled CMHB effect. The future research directions on the pH responsiveness of SPs are also discussed here. It is anticipated that the study of the pH responsiveness of SPs not only will provide a new understanding of the fundamental properties of SPs, but also will greatly expand the applications of SPs in the field of smart materials.

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Acknowledgments

This work was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 22273098, 52033001, 22373003 and 22103002) and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (No. WK2480000007).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Hefei National Research Center for Physical Sciences at the Microscale, Department of Chemical Physics, Key Laboratory of Surface and Interface Chemistry and Energy Catalysis of Anhui Higher Education Institutes, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, 230026, China

    Yue Huang, Guang-Tao Mei & Guang-Ming Liu

  2. The Key Laboratory of Functional Molecular Solids, Ministry of Education, and Department of Materials Chemistry, School of Chemistry and Materials Science, Anhui Normal University, Wuhu, 214002, China

    Zan Hua

Authors
  1. Yue Huang
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  2. Guang-Tao Mei
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  3. Zan Hua
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  4. Guang-Ming Liu
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Correspondence to Zan Hua or Guang-Ming Liu.

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Biographies

Zan Hua received his B.S. degree from Anhui Normal University in 2011 and his M.S. degree from the University of Science and Technology of China in 2014. Then he pursued his Ph.D. degree in the University of Warwick, UK. After obtaining his Ph.D. degree in 2018, he worked as an Associated Professor at Anhui Agricultural University for several years. From March 2023, he was appointed as a professor at Anhui Normal University. His present research interests include the ionic effects of polymers and DNA-inspired polymeric materials.

Guang-Ming Liu received his B.S. degree from Anhui Normal University in 2002 and his Ph.D. degree from the University of Science and Technology of China in 2007. He worked as a research assistant at The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology from 2005 to 2006 and as a postdoctoral fellow at The Australian National University from 2008 to 2010. He is currently a professor at the University of Science and Technology of China. His present research interests focus on the ionic effects in macromolecular systems from fundamentals to applications.

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Huang, Y., Mei, GT., Hua, Z. et al. Counterion-Mediated Hydrogen Bonding Making Strong Polyelectrolytes pH-Responsive: Current Understanding and Perspectives. Chin J Polym Sci (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10118-024-3115-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10118-024-3115-7

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