Diethanol Ammonium-borate Based Polybetaine with Tunable UCST Phase Transition

• Published in: Chinese journal of polymer science 2016-06, Vol.34 (6), p.777-784
• Main Authors: Shi, Mei, Duan, Xin-rui, Liu, Zhao-tie, Liu, Zhong-wen, Jiang, Jin-qiang
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Anions; Biomimetics; Characterization and Evaluation of Materials; Chemistry; Chemistry and Materials Science; Condensed Matter Physics; Ethanol; Ethyl alcohol; Industrial Chemistry/Chemical Engineering; Monomers; Phase transformations; Polymer Sciences; Spectra; UCST; 乙醇含量; 季铵化; 甜菜碱型; 相转变; 硼酸盐; 聚合物浓度; 苯乙烯单体
• ISSN: 0256-7679; 1439-6203
• DOI: 10.1007/s10118-016-1790-8

A betaine-type styrene monomer with the quaternary ammonium-borate anion inner-salt pair was synthesized through the quatemization reaction and polymerized to afford the target polybetaine of poly（4-vinylbenzyl methyl-diethanol ammonium borate） （PVMAB）. The chemical structures of the monomer and polymer were well demonstrated with 1H-NMR and llB-NMR spectra analysis. The thermal-sensitive experiment showed that PVMAB in water afforded gradually well- defined sigmoidal transmittance-temperature （T-t） curves along with the increasing polymer concentration. However, the phase transition temperatures at the bottom of the S-shaped curves were always below l0 ~C due to the very weak zwitterionic association of the ammonium-borate inner-salt pairs. The UCST phase transition could also be tuned by changing the ethanol content in the ethanol/water mixture. And the cytotoxicity experiment demonstrated the good biomimetic property of PVMAB. This study enriches the toolbox of polybetaines by introducing the quaternary ammonium- borate anion zwitterionic pair in the repeat units, therefore broadens the scope of synthetic polybetaines.