Multi-responsive polymethacrylamide homopolymers derived from tertiary amine-modified l-alanine

• Polymethacrylamide homopolymers based on tertiary amine-modified l-alanine are prepared.
• The incorporated natural amino acid moiety endow polymers with optical activity.
• Monomer structure is critical for polymer to exhibit desired responsive property.
• Polymers display LCST in basic pH range and effects of various factors are studied.
• Copolymerization is not necessary to obtain multi-responsive polymers.

Four poly(N-methacryloyl-l-alanine) homopolymers containing different tertiary amine moieties, dimethylaminoethyl, dimethylaminopropyl, diethylaminoethyl, and diethylaminopropyl, were prepared by reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) polymerization in an effort to use natural amino acids as building blocks to design stimuli-responsive polymers that display pH-tunable lower critical solution temperature (LCST) transitions in the basic pH range. Monomer structure was found to be critical for the corresponding polymer to exhibit desired stimuli-responsive properties in water. While all four polymethacrylamides showed thermosensitive property in water, only poly(N-methacryloyl-l-alanine 2-(diethylamino)ethylamide) (PMAEE) exhibited LCST behavior in a wide pH range, from 9.0 to 13.0. Other polymers' thermoresponsive properties were found either at very high pH values (e.g., ≥13.0) or in a rather narrow pH range. The effects of pH, polymer molecular weight, polymer concentration, presence of NaCl, and end groups on cloud point of PMAEE in water were investigated; the cloud point decreased with the increase of solution pH and polymer concentration, the addition of NaCl, and the introduction of a more hydrophobic end group but varied little with polymer molecular weight. The incorporation of tertiary amine moieties endowed the polymers with a CO2-responsive property; we demonstrated that the thermosensitive property of PMAEE can be reversibly tuned by bubbling its solution alternately with CO2 and N2 gases.

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