Abstract
Incorporation of Nafion to aqueous solutions of Pluronics adversely impacts micellization due to extensive Nafion/copolymer interactions. Light scattering and zeta potential measurements provide evidence for the formation of sizable and stable Nafion/copolymer complexes, in expense of the neat copolymer micelles. At high copolymer concentrations, the overall interaction diagram of Nafion/copolymer reflects the competitive action of the release of packing constraints due to micellar destabilization induced by Nafion on one hand and the gelator nature of the Nafion on the other. Measurements using a quartz crystal microbalance (QCM-D) show that aqueous solutions of Pluronics (even at very low concentration) can dissolve the Nafion coating on the crystal resonator, while typical low molecular weight ionic surfactants fail to induce similar effects. These studies demonstrate that complexation with this class of copolymers is a facile route to impart dispersibility to Nafion in aqueous environments that otherwise can be achieved through tedious and harsh treatments. © 2010 American Chemical Society.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 554-560 |
| Number of pages | 7 |
| Journal | Langmuir |
| Volume | 27 |
| Issue number | 2 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Jan 18 2011 |
| Externally published | Yes |
Bibliographical note
KAUST Repository Item: Exported on 2020-10-01Acknowledged KAUST grant number(s): KUS-C1-018-02
Acknowledgements: This material is based on work supported as part of the Energy Materials Center at Cornell, an Energy Frontier Research Center funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences under Award Number DE-SC0001086. This publication is based on work supported in part by Award No. KUS-C1-018-02, made by King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST).
This publication acknowledges KAUST support, but has no KAUST affiliated authors.