Monitoring the aggregation behaviour of self-assembling polymers through high-resolution ultrasonic spectroscopy

Poloxamer 407 is a well-known self-assembling polymer with a wide range of temperature- and concentration-dependent phase behaviour, such as micellization and gelation. This work was carried out to demonstrate the potential of high-resolution ultrasonic spectroscopy in evaluating aggregation–deaggregation behaviour of self-assembling polymers. In order to achieve this objective, six different concentrations of Poloxamer 407 water dispersion were prepared and analysed between 5 and 35 °C using ultrasonic spectroscopy. For comparison, the same samples were also analysed by the DSC technique. The results showed that polymer aggregation process can be successfully monitored using both ultrasonic parameters of sound speed and attenuation. Furthermore, good agreement with DSC data was observed in terms of characteristic transition temperatures and also in terms of micellization kinetics and related parameters.