A novel smart polymer responsive to CO_2

摘要

An amidine-based polymer was prepared by combination of RAFT polymerization and "click" reaction, and the polymer undergoes a hydrophobic—hydrophilic transition upon the stimulus of CO_2. Over the past decades, stimuli-responsive smart polymers that respond in a dramatic way to slight external changes have attracted much attention, as they show great potential in versatile applications such as controlled release, gene delivery, biomimetic materials, biosensors, intelligent" coatings, smart" surfaces, thin films, separation engineering, to name just a few. However, the overwhelming majority of the reports so far are mainly focusing on common triggers, including temperature, pH, light, redox, glucose, electric field and ionic strength. To the best of our knowledge, few reports to date were concentrated on the stimulus of gas, particularly CO_2 to polymers.