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Role of PPO–PEO–PPO triblock copolymers in phase transitions of a PEO–PPO–PEO triblock copolymer in aqueous solution

European Polymer Journal, ISSN: 0014-3057, Vol: 71, Page: 423-439
2015
  • 23
    Citations
  • 0
    Usage
  • 48
    Captures
  • 0
    Mentions
  • 0
    Social Media
Metric Options:   Counts1 Year3 Year

Metrics Details

  • Citations
    23
    • Citation Indexes
      23
  • Captures
    48

Article Description

The effects of two poly(propylene oxide)–poly(ethylene oxide)–poly(propylene oxide) (PPO–PEO–PPO) triblock copolymers, Pluronics-R 10R5 (PPO 8 –PEO 22 –PPO 8 ) and 25R4 (PPO 19 –PEO 33 –PPO 19 ), on the thermal and rheological properties as well as the phase transitions of a poly(ethylene oxide)–poly(propylene oxide)–poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO–PPO–PEO) triblock copolymer (Pluronic F127, PEO 100 –PPO 65 –PEO 100 ) in aqueous solution have been systematically studied. Both 10R5 and 25R4 could shift the critical micellization temperature of F127 to lower temperatures, showing a “salt-out like” effect. When F127 itself is unable to form a gel at low concentrations, 25R4 could assist micelles of F127 to be connected into a gel network. However, 10R5 is too short to be able to assist F127 to form a gel. At low contents of 10R5 or 25R4, F127 dominates its gelation but 25R4 could affect the hard gel–soft gel transition while10R5 showed a weaker effect on the hard gel–soft gel transition than 25R4. The rheological scaling law in the vicinity of the gel point was examined to obtain the critical relaxation exponent n and the critical gel strength Sg. n decreases and Sg increases with increasing 25R4 at low concentrations of F127. However, 10R5 and 25R4 affected n and Sg differently at high concentrations of F127.

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