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One‐Pot Automated Synthesis of Quasi Triblock Copolymers for Self‐Healing Physically Crosslinked Hydrogels
Author(s) -
Voorhaar Lenny,
De Meyer Bernhard,
Du Prez Filip,
Hoogenboom Richard
Publication year - 2016
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.201600380
Subject(s) - copolymer , self healing hydrogels , monomer , chain transfer , raft , polymer chemistry , acrylate , polymer , materials science , reversible addition−fragmentation chain transfer polymerization , polymerization , self healing , side chain , radical polymerization , chemical engineering , composite material , medicine , alternative medicine , pathology , engineering
The preparation of physically crosslinked hydrogels from quasi ABA‐triblock copolymers with a water‐soluble middle block and hydrophobic end groups is reported. The hydrophilic monomer N ‐acryloylmorpholine is copolymerized with hydrophobic isobornyl acrylate via a one‐pot sequential monomer addition through reversible addition fragmentation chain‐transfer (RAFT) polymerization in an automated parallel synthesizer, allowing systematic variation of polymer chain length and hydrophobic–hydrophilic ratio. Hydrophobic interactions between the outer blocks cause them to phase‐separate into larger hydrophobic domains in water, forming physical crosslinks between the polymers. The resulting hydrogels are studied using rheology and their self‐healing ability after large strain damage is shown.