TY - CONF A1 - Asadujjaman, Asad A1 - Bertin, Annabelle T1 - Aggregation behavior of UCST-Type Poly(Acrylamide-co-Acrylonitrile) copolymer N2 - Thermoresponsive polymers have shown great potential in applications such as bioseparation, drug delivery and diagnostic. Only few thermoresponsive polymers that present an upper critical solution temperature (UCST) in a relevant temperature range, i.e. phase separate from solution upon cooling, have been reported so far. Moreover, the most studied UCST type polymers namely polybetaines are difficult to use under physiological conditions, which significantly restricts their potential applications. Therefore, UCST polymers with sharp and robust phase transition in physiological conditions (in the presence of salts, ions etc.) are highly needed in order to extend the range of applications of this class of polymers. Herein, a robust UCST-type copolymer of acrylamide (AAm) and acrylonitrile (AN) (poly(AAm-co-AN)) was prepared by reversible addition fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) polymerization and its thermo-induced aggregation behavior in aqueous media was studied. At temperature below the UCST, the copolymer chains were aggregated together. The aggregate size was found to be larger with increasing AN contents and became smaller upon dilution of the copolymer solutions. While above the UCST, the copolymer chains were expanded and weekly associated in solution. The association between the copolymer chains formed smaller aggregates with increasing the AN contents or the dilution of the solutions. A model is proposed to explain such aggregation-association behavior of the Fig. 1. Figure 1. Schematic illustration of the proposed thermos-induced aggregation behavior of the poly(AAm-co-AN) in aqueous solution. T2 - World Congress on Living Polymerizations and Polymers 2016 CY - Budapest, Hungry DA - 29.05.2016 - 03.06.2016 KW - Polymer KW - UCST PY - 2016 AN - OPUS4-36491 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -