Soft Matter 2016-04-07

Doubly thermo-responsive copolymers in ionic liquid.

H H Nguyen, M El Ezzi, C Mingotaud, M Destarac, J-D Marty, N Lauth-de Viguerie

Index: Soft Matter 12 , 3246-51, (2016)

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Abstract

We report the behaviour of thermoresponsive block copolymers of n-butyl acrylate and N-alkyl acrylamides in [C2mim][NTf2]. Poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) exhibits an upper critical solution temperature in [C2mim][NTf2] whereas poly(n-butyl acrylate) has a lower critical solution temperature. Consequently, these polymers exhibit double thermo-responsiveness correlated with the macromolecular structure. Moreover, a switching from micellar to reverse micellar structures was induced by a change in temperature. This property enables the development of reversible shuttles between ionic liquids and water.