Berlin 2024 – scientific programme
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CPP: Fachverband Chemische Physik und Polymerphysik
CPP 15: Poster I
CPP 15.35: Poster
Monday, March 18, 2024, 18:00–20:00, Poster C
Injectable hydrogels from thermoresponsive tri- and tetrablock terpolymers investigated using scattering methods — •Feifei Zheng1, Pablo Alvarez Herrera1, Wenqi Xu1, Eirini Melampianaki1, Joachim Kohlbrecher2, Anna P. Constantinou3, Theoni K. Georgiou3, and Christine M. Papadakis1 — 1TUM School of Natural Sciences, Technical University of Munich, Garching, Germany — 2Paul Scherrer Institut, Villigen PSI, Switzerland — 3Department of Materials, Imperial College London, London, UK
Thermogels are an exciting class of stimuli-responsive materials with many promising applications, e.g. in 3D bioprinting. The mechanical properties in the gel state strongly depend on the architecture of the polymer. Here we address an ABC triblock terpolymer and a BABC tetrablock terpolymer consisting of the hydrophilic OEGMA (A), the hydrophobic BuMA (B), and the thermoresponsive DEGMA (C).The results from dynamic light scattering on dilute solutions indicate that the hydrodynamic radii of the micelles formed by both, ABC and BABC, increase strongly above 25 °C, and the solutions feature a cloud point, i.e. aggregation of the micelles sets in. By small-angle neutron scattering, we found that ABC forms spherical core-shell micelles, that transform into cylinders at high temperatures, and then become a more compact structure upon further heating. In contrast, the core-shell micelles formed by BABC stay spherical and form small fractal aggregates at higher temperatures, that form a less dense network structure in comparison to those formed by ABC.
Keywords: thermoresponsive gels; triblock copolymer; tetrablock copolymer; dynamic light scattering; small angle neutron scattering