MACROMOLECULAR AGGREGATION - COMPLEXATION DUE TO HYDROGEN-BONDING ANDHYDROPHOBIC ASSOCIATION

This paper reports the main results of the studies carried out in our laboratory on various kinds of polymer aggregation in aqueous and orga nic solutions. (1) In solutions of a polymer blend with controllable h ydrogen bonding, a transition from individual polymer coils to intermo lecular complex is observed as the hydrogen bonding interaction increa ses to a certain level. This is found to be a general phenomenon of po lymer blends in which hydrogen bonding is adjustable. (2) A new kind o f aggregation behavior of block ionomers based on SEBS is found and st udied by fluorospectroscopy. The results explore that the block ionome r can form dispersion of hydrophobic aggregates in water stabilized by rare ionic groups. (3) Fluorocarbon-containing PNIPAM in water establ ishes hydrophobic association. Fluorocarbon-modified pyrene (PycoRf) i s found to be qualified to serve as a fluorescent probe to monitor the association.