Amphiphilic block copolymers have gained a broad research interest attributed to their self-assembly properties over a range of different environments. Polyzwitterions have attracted special attention due to their higher hydrophilicity, charge sensitivity and anti-fouling property making them a popular material in the field of stimuli responsive systems, e.g., self-healing hydrogels, water transport membranes, etc. The synthesis of an array of amphiphilic block copolymers where the hydrophilic part is a polyzwitterion along with a low Tg hydrophobic block have been performed. At first, a series of neutral amphiphilic block copolymers with different volume fractions of poly (dimethylamino ethyl methyl methacrylate) (PDMAEMA) as one block and a poly (n-Butyl acrylate- ran- allyl methacrylate) as the other block has been synthesized using RAFT polymerization. From the parent copolymeric scaffolds a series of Amphiphilic-Zwitterionic block copolymers has been fabricated using post-polymerization modification on the PDMAEMA block using nucleophilic ring-opening of 1,3-propane sultone. Robust membranes were then prepared using photo crosslinking with a dithiol crosslinker using thiol-ene click chemistry. Results from studies on how systematic variation of the volume fraction of the zwitterionic block have on self-assembled nanostructures will be discussed. Overall, combining the stimuli responsiveness and higher hydrophilicity of zwitterionic polymers with self-assembly behavior of amphiphilic block copolymers opens a broad opportunity towards antifouling water filtration membranes.

Effect of chemical identity and morphology in amphiphilic-zwitterionic copolymer membranes

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ACS Fall 2022

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