https://doi.org/10.1140/epje/i2013-13037-8
Regular Article
Thermo-reversible gelation of atactic poly(methyl methacrylate) in poly(ethylene glycol) oligomers
19851
Department of Polymer Science and Engineering, the School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, The State Key Laboratory of Coordination Chemistry, Nanjing University, 210093, Nanjing, P.R. China
29851
College of Wood Science and Technology, Nanjing Forestry University, 210037, Nanjing, P.R. China
* e-mail: dzhou@nju.edu.cn
** e-mail: xuegi@nju.edu.cn
Received:
30
October
2012
Revised:
6
February
2013
Accepted:
11
March
2013
Published online:
19
April
2013
The temperature-concentration behavior of physical gel by atactic poly(methyl methacrylate) (aPMMA) in poly(ethylene glycol) oligomer (PEG400) was investigated. A liquid-liquid demixing interferes with a glass transition during cooling. The combination of demixing and T g leads to the formation of amorphous gels at low temperature. We suggest that the gelation of aPMMA/PEG400 is a glassy gel, in which short-range attractive depletion interaction in the polymer/oligomer system was the driving force at molecular level.
Key words: Soft Matter: Polymers and Polyelectrolytes
© EDP Sciences, SIF, Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg, 2013