An Exceptionally Salt Tolerant Copoly(Maleimide Sulfobetaine) - Structural Requirements for Ultra-Salt Tolerance

Zwitterionic polymers are an important class of polymers with far-ranging applications. In the widely studied poly(meth)acrylate and poly(meth) acrylamide-based zwitterions, properties can be tuned by changing the nature of substituents attached to ammonium ions. However, these changes influenced salt tolerance of zwitterionic polymers only to a limited extent. Upon adding salt these polymers expanded in solution initially. Further increase in salt concentration caused the polymer chains to shrink similar to the common water soluble, uncharged polymers thereby deteriorating the viscosity of aqueous solutions. In contrast to the conventional poly(meth)acrylate and poly(meth)acrylamide-based zwitterions, zwitterionic copolymaleimides showed substituent dependent salt-tolerant nature. In the absence of any substituent on the polymer backbone such as zwitterionic poly(ethylene-alt-maleimide) (ZI-PEMA) the viscosity of salt solutions increased both with the increasing salt concentration as well as the concentration of polymer. This is likely due to the continuous expansion of polymer coil in salt solutions with increasing salt concentration caused primarily by the rigidity of the polymer backbone. ZI-PEMA also enhanced the saturation limit of mono- and divalent salts like sodium chloride and hydrated calcium bromide in water. This property is useful for various applications like fish curing, for making high-density fluids, refrigeration, etc. across various industrial sectors.