A unique strategy has been developed for tuning sol-gel/gel-sol transitions of moderately concentrated aqueous solutions of thermosensitive hydrophilic block copolymers, which are usually fixed at a specific concentration. Our method is to statistically incorporate a small amount of stimuli-responsive groups into the thermosensitive block of block copolymers such that the lower critical solution temperature can be modified via an external stimulus. Using 'living'/controlled radical polymerization techniques, we have synthesized a series of doubly responsive hydrophilic block copolymers through the incorporation of various stimuli-responsive groups into the thermosensitive block(s), and demonstrated the tuning of thermally-induced sol-to-gel and/or gel-to-sol transitions of their moderately concentrated aqueous solutions by applying external stimuli.

Tuning sol-gel-sol transitions of moderately concentrated aqueous solutions of thermosensitive hydrophilic block copolymers

246th National Meeting (2013)

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