Micelles and gels of mixed triblock copoly(oxyalkylene)s in aqueous solution

The micellization in dilute aqueous solution of a 50/50 wt% mixture of two triblock copolymers, E45B14E45 and E62P39E62, and the gelation of concentrated micellar solutions have been investigated over a range of temperatures. Here E, B, and P denote oxyethylene, oxubutylene, and oxypropylene chain units. Comparison is made with aqueous solutions of the individual copolymers. The results of light scattering measurements are consistent with effectively separate micellization of the two copolymers in the mixture. Hard gel formed when the extent of micellization was high for both copolymers. Because of the relatively high critical micellization temperatures of copolymer E62P39E62, the low-temperature boundary of the hard gel was high for this copolymer and for the mixture. The minimum concentration for hard-gel formation was higher for the mixture than for either of the individual copolymers, as would be expected for packing of two distributions of micelles of different average size.