Résumé
A material is referred to as stimuli responsive when a slight change in external parameters can drastically alter its structure, function, or stability. Polymers with their delicate entropy-energy interplay at ambient temperatures are especially suitable for such phenomena. Here, the example of polymer properties in solvent mixtures will be discussed. Special emphasis will be given to 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 connected to depletion competition between different components.
Références
- Mukherji et al. Nat. Comm. 5 (1), 4882 (2014), Nat. Comm. 8, 1374 (2017)
