@article{NiebuurPuchmayrHeroldetal.2018,
  author    = {Niebuur, Bart-Jan and Puchmayr, Jonas and Herold, Christian and Kreuzer, Lucas and Hildebrand, Viet and M{\"u}ller-Buschbaum, Peter and Laschewsky, Andre and Papadakis, Christine M.},
  title     = {Polysulfobetaines in aqueous solution and in thin film geometry},
  series = {Materials},
  volume    = {11},
  journal   = {Materials},
  number    = {5},
  publisher = {MDPI},
  address   = {Basel},
  issn      = {1996-1944},
  doi       = {10.3390/ma11050850},
  pages     = {11},
  year      = {2018},
  abstract  = {Polysulfobetaines in aqueous solution show upper critical solution temperature (UCST) behavior. We investigate here the representative of this class of materials, poly (N,N-dimethyl-N-(3-methacrylamidopropyl) ammonio propane sulfonate) (PSPP), with respect to: (i) the dynamics in aqueous solution above the cloud point as function of NaBr concentration; and (ii) the swelling behavior of thin films in water vapor as function of the initial film thickness. For PSPP solutions with a concentration of 5 wt.\%, the temperature dependence of the intensity autocorrelation functions is measured with dynamic light scattering as function of molar mass and NaBr concentration (0-8 mM). We found a scaling of behavior for the scattered intensity and dynamic correlation length. The resulting spinodal temperatures showed a maximum at a certain (small) NaBr concentration, which is similar to the behavior of the cloud points measured previously by turbidimetry. The critical exponent of susceptibility depends on NaBr concentration, with a minimum value where the spinodal temperature is maximum and a trend towards the mean-field value of unity with increasing NaBr concentration. In contrast, the critical exponent of the correlation length does not depend on NaBr concentration and is lower than the value of 0.5 predicted by mean-field theory. For PSPP thin films, the swelling behavior was found to depend on film thickness. A film thickness of about 100 nm turns out to be the optimum thickness needed to obtain fast hydration with H2O.},
  language  = {en}
}
@article{NizardoSchanzenbachSchoenemannetal.2018,
  author    = {Nizardo, Noverra M. and Schanzenbach, Dirk and Sch{\"o}nemann, Eric and Laschewsky, Andre},
  title     = {Exploring poly(ethylene glycol)-polyzwitterion diblock copolymers as biocompatible smart macrosurfactants featuring UCST-phase behavior in normal saline solution},
  series = {Polymers},
  volume    = {10},
  journal   = {Polymers},
  number    = {3},
  publisher = {MDPI},
  address   = {Basel},
  issn      = {2073-4360},
  doi       = {10.3390/polym10030325},
  pages     = {22},
  year      = {2018},
  abstract  = {Nonionic-zwitterionic diblock copolymers are designed to feature a coil-to-globule collapse transition with an upper critical solution temperature (UCST) in aqueous media, including physiological saline solution. The block copolymers that combine presumably highly biocompatible blocks are synthesized by chain extension of a poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) macroinitiator via atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) of sulfobetaine and sulfabetaine methacrylates. Their thermoresponsive behavior is studied by variable temperature turbidimetry and H-1 NMR spectroscopy. While the polymers with polysulfobetaine blocks exhibit phase transitions in the physiologically interesting window of 30-50 degrees C only in pure aqueous solution, the polymers bearing polysulfabetaine blocks enabled phase transitions only in physiological saline solution. By copolymerizing a pair of structurally closely related sulfo-and sulfabetaine monomers, thermoresponsive behavior can be implemented in aqueous solutions of both low and high salinity. Surprisingly, the presence of the PEG blocks can affect the UCST-transitions of the polyzwitterions notably. In specific cases, this results in "schizophrenic" thermoresponsive behavior displaying simultaneously an UCST and an LCST (lower critical solution temperature) transition. Exploratory experiments on the UCST-transition triggered the encapsulation and release of various solvatochromic fluorescent dyes as model "cargos" failed, apparently due to the poor affinity even of charged organic compounds to the collapsed state of the polyzwitterions.},
  language  = {en}
}