Temperature-Responsive Polymers for Biological Applications

Abstract

Water soluble polymers with tunable lower critical solution temperature (LCST) are of increasing interest for biological applications such as cell patterning, smart drug release, DNA sequencing etc. The present study addresses control of the polymer temperature response in water by varying chemical composition of the monomer. In order to achieve this a series of polymers were designed and synthesized based on an ethyleneoxide/ethylene monomer (EO/EE). Polymers were synthesized using polycondensation reactions of difunctional m-EO and n-EE oligomers. The cloud point follows linearly the balance of hydrophobic/hydrophilic interaction and can be tailored in the range of 7 - 700C by varying the m/n composition and polymer type. Polymer grafting onto the silicon surface exhibits similar solubility behaviour. Adhesion energy measurements show that grafted polymers have solubility cloud points at the temperatures that are close to the ones of the bulk polymer solutions.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jun 01, 2003
Accession Number
ADA429562

Entities

People

  • E. Manias
  • M. Rackaitis

Organizations

  • Pennsylvania State University

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Biomedical

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Adhesion
  • Alkenes
  • Aqueous Solutions
  • Chemical Synthesis
  • Chemistry
  • Energy
  • Ethylene Oxide
  • Ethylenes
  • Experimental Data
  • Hydrophilic Properties
  • Hydrophobic Properties
  • Materials
  • Materials Science
  • Phase Transformations
  • Polymers
  • Self Assembled Monolayers
  • Transition Temperature

Fields of Study

  • Chemistry

Readers

  • Nanocomposite Materials Science
  • Polymer Science and Technology