Thickening effect in soluble hydrogen-bonding interpolymer complexes. Influence of pH and molecular parameters

Abstract

Linear and nonlinear viscoelastic properties of poly(acrylic acid) (PAA) and poly(acrylic acid-co-2-acrylamido-2-methylpropane sulfonic acid)-graft-poly(N,N-dimethylacrylamide) (P(AA-co-AMPSA)-g-PDMAM) mixtures have been investigated as a function of pH, the PDMAM content of the graft copolymer and the molecular weight of PAA. At pH < 3.75, strong hydrogen-bonding interpolymer complexation between PAA and PDMAM side chains in semidilute solution leads to the formation of a transient network, as the considerable increase in viscosity indicates. The sol/gel transition observed at pH=2.0 by increasing the graft copolymer composition in PDMAM is explained by a substantial increase in the number of the junctions (stickers) resulting from the PDMAAM/PAA hydrogen bonding complexation. Moreover, the thickening effect observed is further strengthened by increasing the molecular weight of PAA, due to the interconnection of more copolymer chains.