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Polymers with Upper Critical Solution Temperature in Aqueous Solution
Author(s) -
Seuring Jan,
Agarwal Seema
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
macromolecular rapid communications
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.348
H-Index - 154
eISSN - 1521-3927
pISSN - 1022-1336
DOI - 10.1002/marc.201200433
Subject(s) - upper critical solution temperature , polymer , aqueous solution , materials science , hysteresis , phase transition , smart polymer , polymer science , lower critical solution temperature , polymer chemistry , chemical engineering , thermodynamics , chemistry , organic chemistry , physics , copolymer , engineering , composite material , quantum mechanics
This review focuses on polymers with upper critical solution temperature (UCST) in water or electrolyte solution and provides a detailed survey of the yet few existing examples. A guide for synthetic chemists for the design of novel UCST polymers is presented and possible handles to tune the phase transition temperature, sharpness of transition, hysteresis, and effectiveness of phase separation are discussed. This review tries to answer the question why polymers with UCST remained largely underrepresented in academic as well as applied research and what requirements have to be fulfilled to make these polymers suitable for the development of smart materials with a positive thermoresponse.