Facile synthesis of thermo-, pH-, CO 2 - and oxidation-responsive poly(amido thioether)s with tunable LCST and UCST behaviors

• Published in: Polymer chemistry Vol. 8; no. 37; pp. 5749 - 5760
• Main Authors: Zhang, Hongcan, Zhang, Jian, Dai, Wenxue, Zhao, Youliang
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 2017
• ISSN: 1759-9954; 1759-9962
• DOI: 10.1039/C7PY01351E

The simple and straightforward construction of multi-responsive systems with tunable LCST and UCST dual phase transitions is a great challenge. This study affords an efficient route to tune cloud points via control over the chemical composition of hydroxyl and diethylamino bearing poly(amido thioether)s which were prepared by one-pot thiol–amine–acrylate polyaddition. Owing to the balance of inter/intrachain interactions, various copolymers could exhibit LCST ( f OH < 0.84), LCST–UCST ( f OH = 0.84–0.89) and UCST ( f OH > 0.89) behaviors relying on the hydroxyl fraction in comonomer units. Meanwhile, the thermoresponsive behaviors of copolymer solutions could be efficiently tuned via switching the solvent and solution pH, applying CO 2 /N 2 bubbling, and oxidation. The success of this study further paves the way for the robust synthesis and practical applications of smart polymers with double thermoresponsivity.