Research on association between multi-sticker amphiphilic polymer and water-soluble β-cyclodextrin polymer

The host cyclodextrin polymer-P(AM/A-β-CD/NaA) is prepared by redox free-radical copolymerization. Additionally, the multi-sticker amphiphilic polymer-P(AM/BHAM/NaA) as a guest polymer is synthesized using micellar polymerization. The copolymer structures are characterized by ¹H NMR. Subsequently, all the polymers and inclusion complexes are evaluated in terms of apparent viscosity, optical absorption spectra and rheological property. The results indicate that the inclusion association between the cyclodextrin group (CD) and multi-sticker hydrophobic monomer (BHAM) is in accordance with ternary interaction (CD/BHAM = 2:1). Because of the inclusion association between the host and guest polymers, the solution of inclusion complex has much higher viscoelasticity even under the low amphiphilic polymer concentration. When the molar ratio of CD to BHAM is 1:1, the critical aggregation concentration (CAC) of the inclusion complex solution still remains. Furthermore, above the CAC, two types of associations, inclusion association and inter-molecular hydrophobic association, can occur in the complex solution and these interactions were also verified by fluorescence spectroscopy and atomic force microscopy (AFM). In this paper, the inclusion rule of cyclodextrin polymer with the multi-sticker amphiphilic polymer is discussed, and the rule of the enhanced solution viscosity is further explored.