A New Family of Water-Soluble Polymers: Polymers of N-Substituted Acrylamide Derivatives

Most polymers dissolve into solvents endothermically which means their solubility increases on heating. In contrast to this some polymers lose their solubility in water at higher temperatures above a critical point, but regain it on cooling the solvent below the critical temperature. In addition to well known poly(N-isopropyl)acrylamide, water-soluble polymers from a series of N-substituted acrylamide derivatives were synthesized and the characteristic solubity change induced by thermal stimulation was investigated by viscometry, light scattering, NMR and DSC.