Nonionic Polymer with Flat Upper Critical Solution Temperature Behavior in Water

We rationally designed a monomer that when polymerized formed a well-defined nonionic polymer [poly(2-(methacryloyloxy) ethylureido glycinamide), PMEGA] by reversible addition fragmentation chain transfer with a flat and tunable upper critical solution temperature (UCST) in water. The monomer was made in one pot from commercially available compounds and with ease of purification. Strong hydrogen-bonding side groups on the polymer produced sharp coil-to-globule transitions upon cooling below its UCST. Ideal random copolymers produced with butyl methacrylate also showed flat UCST profiles, in which the UCST increased with a greater butyl methacrylate copolymer composition from 7 to 65 °C. In the presence of NaCl, the UCST decreased linearly with NaCl concentration due to the "salting-in" effect, and it was found that the slopes from the linear decrease of UCST were nearly identical for all copolymer compositions. This new polymer and its copolymers support the hypothesis that strong hydrogen bonding between the side groups allowed the flat UCST to be readily tuned with a high level of predictability. We postulate that this polymer system may provide wide biological applicability similar to that found for the well-used flat lower critical solution temperature (LCST) of poly(N-isopropylacrylamide).