Mechanisms of micellization and rheology of PEO–PPO–PEO triblock copolymers with various architectures

Micelle formation was followed by micro-DSC and rheology for aqueous solutions of two copolymers of PEO–PPO–PEO, the Pluronic F127 (from BASF) and the EG56 (from PolymerExpert), a branched copolymer built with three chains of F127 type. It is shown that micellization is endothermic and that, for both polymers, the enthalpy of formation/melting is proportional to total concentration. The rheology of the solutions was carefully analyzed, before gelation for F127, and it reveals firstly the progressive changes of solubility of the unimers (decease of relative solution viscosity), followed by micelle formation over a 10 °C range. In this range, the micelle concentration dependence on temperature was deduced from enthalpy measurements and the corresponding volume fractions were derived. Viscosity was interpreted within the framework of well-known theories for hard sphere suspensions (Krieger–Dougherty or Quemada) based on an analogy between micelles and nanosized hairy grain suspensions. The gel state is achieved due to formation of the colloidal crystal. For EG56, the rheology is quite different; as the aggregation increases with temperature, a progression is observed from Newtonian to visco-elastic liquid. The characteristic frequency, defined by the relation G′=G″G′=G″, for EG56 varies with temperature and the corresponding times increase by two orders of magnitude according to an Arrhenius law. The frequency dependence of G′G′ and G″G″ at different temperatures can be superposed with a horizontal shift factor and a small amplitude adjustment. There is no elastic solid formation in this case. The “gelation” of these two copolymers is compared to the physical gelation of cold-set gels (gelatin).

Graphical abstractThe influence of molecular architecture of two triblock copolymers (F127 and EG56) on aqueous micelle formation and aggregation has been investigated by micro-DSC and rheology. The image shows a schematic structure of EG56 micelles.Figure optionsDownload full-size imageDownload as PowerPoint slide