TY  - JOUR
AU  - Kang, Jia-Jhen
AU  - Jung, Florian A.
AU  - Ko, Chia-Hsin
AU  - Shehu, Kaltrina
AU  - Barnsley, Lester C.
AU  - Kohler, Fabian
AU  - Dietz, Hendrik
AU  - Zhao, Junpeng
AU  - Pispas, Stergios
AU  - Papadakis, Christine M.
TI  - Thermoresponsive Molecular Brushes with Propylene Oxide/Ethylene Oxide Copolymer Side Chains in Aqueous Solution
JO  - Macromolecules
VL  - 53
IS  - 10
SN  - 1520-5835
CY  - Washington, DC
PB  - Soc.
M1  - FZJ-2020-02109
SP  - 4068 - 4081
PY  - 2020
AB  - The thermoresponsive behavior of two molecular brushes having poly(propylene oxide)–poly(ethylene oxide) copolymer side chains is investigated in aqueous solution, where the side chains have longer contour lengths than the backbone. The brushes differ in the side-chain architecture; they are either a diblock (PbE) or a random copolymer (PrE). For both types of brushes, an overall rodlike shape at room temperature is revealed by cryo-electron microscopy. A polymer-rich central part and a water-rich outer part are identified by small-angle neutron scattering (SANS). Upon heating up to the cloud point, the shell of PbE weakly dehydrates, while the one of PrE severely dehydrates along with a cylinder-to-disk transformation. Moreover, the aggregates formed above the cloud points feature significantly different inner structures: PbE aggregates are composed of strongly interpenetrating brushes, while PrE aggregates consist of loosely packed brushes. These differences indicate the important role of the side-chain architecture in the thermal dehydration behavior and the associated structural changes.
LB  - PUB:(DE-HGF)16
UR  - <Go to ISI:>//WOS:000537677300044
DO  - DOI:10.1021/acs.macromol.0c00263
UR  - https://juser.fz-juelich.de/record/877286
ER  -