TY - JOUR A1 - Kyriakos, Konstantinos A1 - Philipp, Martine A1 - Lin, Che-Hung A1 - Dyakonova, Margarita A1 - Vishnevetskaya, Natalya A1 - Grillo, Isabelle A1 - Zaccone, Alessio A1 - Miasnikova, Anna A1 - Laschewsky, Andre A1 - Müller-Buschbaum, Peter A1 - Papadakis, Christine M. T1 - Quantifying the Interactions in the Aggregation of Thermoresponsive Polymers: The Effect of Cononsolvency JF - Macromolecular rapid communications N2 - The aggregation kinetics of thermoresponsive core-shell micelles with a poly(N-isopropyl acrylamide) shell in pure water or in mixtures of water with the cosolvents methanol or ethanol at mole fractions of 5% is investigated during a temperature jump across the respective cloud point. Characteristically, these mixtures give rise to cononsolvency behavior. At the cloud point, aggregates are formed, and their growth is followed with time-resolved small-angle neutron scattering. Using the reversible association model, the interaction potential between the aggregates is determined from their growth rate in dependence on the cosolvents. The effect of the cosolvent is attributed to the interaction potential on the structured layer of hydration water around the aggregates. It is surmised that the latter is perturbed by the cosolvent and thus the residual repulsive hydration force between the aggregates is reduced. The larger the molar volume of the cosolvent, the more pronounced is the effect. This framework provides a molecular-level understanding of solvent-mediated effective interactions in polymer solutions and new opportunities for the rational control of self-assembly in complex soft matter systems. KW - colloidal aggregation KW - cononsolvency KW - interaction potential KW - polymer solutions KW - self-assembled micelles KW - thermoresponsive polymers Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1002/marc.201500583 SN - 1022-1336 SN - 1521-3927 VL - 37 SP - 420 EP - 425 PB - Wiley-VCH CY - Weinheim ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Vishnevetskaya, Natalya S. A1 - Hildebrand, Viet A1 - Niebuur, Bart-Jan A1 - Grillo, Isabelle A1 - Filippov, Sergey K. A1 - Laschewsky, Andre A1 - Müller-Buschbaum, Peter A1 - Papadakis, Christine M. T1 - Aggregation Behavior of Doubly Thermoresponsive Polysulfobetaine-b-poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) Diblock Copolymers JF - Macromolecules : a publication of the American Chemical Society N2 - A 2-fold thermoresponsive diblock copolymer PSPP430-b-PNIPAM(200) consisting of a zwitterionic polysulfobetaine (PSPP) block and a nonionic poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAM) block is prepared by successive RAFT polymerizations. In aqueous solution, the corresponding homopolymers PSPP and PNIPAM feature both upper and lower critical solution temperature (UCST and LCST) behavior, respectively. The diblock copolymer exhibits thermally induced "schizophrenic" aggregation behavior in aqueous solutions. Moreover, the ion sensitivity of the, cloud point of the zwitterionic PSPP block to both the ionic strength and the nature of the salt offers the possibility to create switchable systems which respond sensitively to changes of the temperature and of the electrolyte type and concentration. The diblock copolymer solutions in D2O are investigated by means of turbidimetry and small-angle neutron scattering (SANS) with respect to the phase behavior and the self-assembled structures in dependence on temperature and electrolyte content. Marked, differences of the aggregation below the UCST-type and above the LCST-type transition are observed. The addition of a small amount of NaBr (0.004 M) does not affect the overall behavior, and only the UCST-type transition and aggregate structures are slightly altered, reflecting the well-known ion sensitivity of the zwitterionic PSPP block. Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.macromol.6b01186 SN - 0024-9297 SN - 1520-5835 VL - 49 SP - 6655 EP - 6668 PB - American Chemical Society CY - Washington ER -