title: Salt-induced micellization of a triblock copolymer in aqueous solution: a 1H nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy study.
abstract: An aqueous micellar solution of a PEO-PPO-PEO triblock copolymer, pluronic F88 (EO103PO39EO103), in the presence of salt (KCl) has been investigated by 1H NMR spectroscopy. The hydrogen-bonding structure in water is directly changed by the strong polarization effect of added salt, which indirectly weakens the interaction of polymer molecules with water. Both EO and PO blocks are dehydrated by the addition of salt in a similar way, whereas the solubility of the PO blocks may be affected in a more pronounced way, which results in the decrease of the critical micellization temperature (CMT). It is found that the addition of salt favors a more compact micellar core, where the water content is decreased and an effective PO-PO interaction is increased. Increasing the salt concentration would result in a decrease in the number of gauche conformers in the PPO chain, which may be the deeper reason for the decreasing solubility of PPO segments in aqueous salt solution. The temperature region over which the micellization occurs is broad, indicating that micelles and unimers coexist over an extended temperature range, whereas this transition region is significantly narrowed by the addition of salt. The addition of salt offers a good substitute way of changing the temperature to induce micellization. The critical micellization salt concentration (CMSC) is determined to be 1.0 mol l-1 for KCl in 2.5% aqueous pluronic F88 solution at 25 degrees C, and the transition region in which both free and associated copolymer molecules coexist is defined to range from 1 to 2 mol L-1.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Separation Science and Engineering, State Key Laboratory of Biochemical Engineering, Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Graduate School of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100080, PR China.
authors.forename: Jun-He
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Ma
authors.forename: Chen
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Guo
authors.forename: Ya-Lin
authors.initials: YL
authors.lastname: Tang
authors.forename: Jing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Lily
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Zheng
authors.forename: Xiang-Feng
authors.initials: XF
authors.lastname: Liang
authors.forename: Shu
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Hui-Zhou
authors.initials: HZ
authors.lastname: Liu
mesh_terms: D002627:Chemistry, Physical / Q000379:methods; D017666:Deuterium Oxide; D006860:Hydrogen Bonding; D009682:Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy / Q000379:methods*; D008823:Micelles; D008968:Molecular Conformation; D011108:Polymers / Q000737:chemistry*; D011189:Potassium Chloride / Q000737:chemistry; D011522:Protons; D012492:Salts / Q000494:pharmacology*; D012995:Solubility; D013696:Temperature; D013997:Time Factors; D014867:Water / Q000737:chemistry
chemical_list: D008823:Micelles; D011108:Polymers; D011522:Protons; D012492:Salts; D014867:Water; D011189:Potassium Chloride; D017666:Deuterium Oxide