Smart hydrogels based on double responsive triblock terpolymers

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Reinicke, Stefan ; Schmelz, Joachim ; Lapp, Alain ; Karg, Matthias ; Hellweg, Thomas ; Schmalz, Holger:
Smart hydrogels based on double responsive triblock terpolymers.
In: Soft Matter. Bd. 5 (2009) Heft 13 . - S. 2648-2657.
ISSN 1744-6848
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1039/b900539k

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Abstract

In this work a new kind of ``smart'' hydrogel is presented, which is composed of a poly(2-vinylpyridine)-block-poly(ethylene oxide)-block-poly(glycidyl methyl ether-co-ethyl glycidyl ether) (P2VP-b-PEO-b-P( GME-co-EGE)) triblock terpolymer. The thermo-sensitive poly(glycidyl methyl ether-co-ethyl glycidyl ether) block exhibits a cloud point which is easily adjustable by the comonomer ratio. Copolymerization of GME and EGE produces nearly statistical copolymers with a weak preferential incorporation of GME, exhibiting a sharp coil-to-globule transition with almost no hysteresis. The triblock terpolymers aggregate in aqueous solution triggered by both pH and temperature. At sufficiently high concentration this stimuli-responsive behaviour leads to a reversible gel formation with gel strengths and transition points tuneable by pH, temperature, concentration, and block lengths. At pH 7, an unique gel-sol-gel transition accompanied with a strengthening of the gel is observed upon heating using rheology. Moreover, the structure of the low temperature gel phase is investigated by means of small-angle neutron scattering (SANS).