Abstract
A material is referred to as stimulus-responsive when a slight change in external parameters can drastically alter its structure, function, or stability. Polymers, with their delicate interplay between entropy and energy at ambient temperatures, are particularly well-suited for such phenomena. Here, we will discuss the example of polymer properties in solvent mixtures. Special emphasis will be placed on two prototypical phenomena: co-non-solvency and co-solvency. The first phenomenon is associated with the collapse of polymers in two miscible, good solvents, where preferential solvation in one component is shown to trigger the collapse transition. The latter is associated with the swelling of polymers in mixtures of poor solvents, which is linked to depletion competition between different components.
References
- Mukherji et al. Nat. Comm. 5 (1), 4882 (2014), Nat. Comm. 8, 1374 (2017)
