Doubly thermo-responsive copolymers in ionic liquid.

Nguyen, H H; El Ezzi, M; Mingotaud, C; Destarac, M; Marty, J-D; Lauth-de Viguerie, N · Soft Matter · 2016

basic_science · Level V

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Abstract

We report the behaviour of thermoresponsive block copolymers of n-butyl acrylate and N-alkyl acrylamides in [C2mim][NTf2]. Poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) exhibits an upper critical solution temperature in [C2mim][NTf2] whereas poly(n-butyl acrylate) has a lower critical solution temperature. Consequently, these polymers exhibit double thermo-responsiveness correlated with the macromolecular structure. Moreover, a switching from micellar to reverse micellar structures was induced by a change in temperature. This property enables the development of reversible shuttles between ionic liquids and water.