Characterizing property distributions of polymeric nanogels by size-exclusion chromatography.

Nanogels are highly branched, swellable polymer structures with average diameters between 1 and 100nm. Size-exclusion chromatography (SEC) fractionates materials in this size range, and it is commonly used to measure nanogel molar mass distributions. For many nanogel applications, it may be more important to calculate the particle size distribution from the SEC data than it is to calculate the molar mass distribution. Other useful nanogel property distributions include particle shape, area, and volume, as well as polymer volume fraction per particle. All can be obtained from multi-detector SEC data with proper calibration and data analysis methods. This work develops the basic equations for calculating several of these differential and cumulative property distributions and applies them to SEC data from the analysis of polymeric nanogels. The methods are analogous to those used to calculate the more familiar SEC molar mass distributions. Calibration methods and characteristics of the distributions are discussed, and the effects of detector noise and mismatched concentration and molar mass sensitive detector signals are examined.

Polymerizable bis(2-ethylhexyl)sulfosuccinate: application in microemulsion polymerization.

A hygroscopic and polymerizable salt ([2-methacryloyloxy]ethyl trimethylammonium chloride) is used to ion exchange the sodium ion in AOT (bis[2-ethylhexyl]sulfosuccinate, sodium salt) to produce a polymerizable form of AOT, MDOS ([2-methacryloyloxy]ethyl trimethylammonium bis[2-ethylhexyl]sulfosuccinate). A partial ternary phase diagram of water, MDOS, and methyl methacrylate (MMA) was determined at room temperature (22 +/- 1 degrees C). A relatively large L2 domain is obtained, but this domain is smaller than that obtained with AOT. Microemulsion polymerization in this domain at 70 degrees C, using AIBN (azoisobutyronitrile) as an initiator, produces an optically clear copolymer solid domain nearly as large as the L2 domain. This interesting behavior contrasts with similar studies of Pavel and Mackay [Langmuir 2000, 16, 8528] using a polymerizable surfactant DDAMA (didecyldimethylammonium methacrylate) that produced a much larger L2 domain than MDOS but yielded a much smaller optically clear domain after thermally initiated polymerization. Thermogravimetric analysis indicates that optically clear composites obtained at an MDOS/MMA weight ratio of 1:4 and containing 5% water (w/w; weight % water in microemulsion) released the water in a transition commencing around 160 degrees C and continuing to 250 degrees C. Thereafter, the thermal decomposition was substantially impeded relative to poly(methyl methacrylate) as a control, which was due to the fire-resistant nature of the MDOS monomer. Molecular weight measurements indicate MDOS/MMA copolymers form substantially higher molecular weights as the proportion of MDOS increases. At a given radius of gyration, higher MDOS-containing copolymers exhibit higher molecular weights, suggesting a more compact structure with increasing MDOS.

Size-exclusion chromatography in 1,1,1,3,3,3-hexafluoro-2-propanol.

1,1,1,3,3,3-Hexafluoroisopropanol is re-examined as an eluent for size-exclusion chromatography (SEC) of polyesters, nylons, and other polar polymers. It is shown that anomalous SEC behavior reported in previous literature can be eliminated by adding 0.01 M tetraethylammonium nitrate to the eluent. The eluent modifier does not affect the solution viscosity or root-mean-square radii of moderately polar polymers such as polyesters and nylons, but it does decrease these quantities for more polar polymers such as poly(ethylene oxide) and poly(2-vinylpyridine). More important, this salt appears to minimize repulsive interactions with styrene-divinylbenzene column packings that have contributed to non-ideal size-exclusion behavior. As a result, conditions are established that satisfy universal calibration.