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Anionic Polymerization of an Amphiphilic Copolymer for Preparation of Block Copolymer Micelles Stabilized by π-π Stacking Interactions
Published on: October 10, 2016
Conformation of poly(ethylene oxide) dissolved in ethylammonium nitrate
Oliver Werzer1, Gregory G Warr, Rob Atkin
1Centre for Organic Electronics, The University of Newcastle, Callaghan, NSW, 2308, Australia.
Abstract:
Small angle neutron scattering has been used to investigate the morphology of 38 kDa PEO dissolved in ethylammonium nitrate (EAN) in the dilute and semidilute concentration regions. At infinite dilution, the radius of gyration, R(g), is 8.1 nm. This value decreases through the dilute regime according to a concentration (c) dependence of R(g) ≈ c(-0.24), while above the overlap concentration a c(-1) dependence is followed. These values differ from aqueous solution behavior, which we attribute to EAN being a poorer solvent for PEO than water; EAN is in fact close to a θ solvent. The polymer structure on length scales less than 3 nm is unaffected by increasing polymer concentration, suggesting that the overall decrease in coil dimensions is a consequence of tighter packing of ∼3 nm polymer "blobs" into a smaller volume.
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