PB46 Influence of Alkyl Substituents on Thermo-Responsive Behavior of Liquid-Crystalline Poly(styrenesulfonate)s with Alkylammonium Cations

Abstract

We have prepared the poly (styrenesulfonate)s with various metal and quaternary ammonium ions as a counter ion. The copolymers possessed a lower critical solution temperature (LCST) in water. It was found that the polysulfonates act as a thermo-responsive polymer in spite of the polyelectrolytes. Moreover, in the copolymers with a suitable compositional ratio, not only hydrophilic-hydrophobic transition, but also sol-gel phase transition and volume phase transition were observed. Such multiple phase transition is specific in comparison with typical thermal-responsive polymers such as PNIPAM. Furthermore, we have investigated the effect of ammonium ions on the thermo-responsive behavior of the poly(styrenesulfonate)s and mechanism of the phase transition.