Dresden 2026 – scientific programme

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CPP: Fachverband Chemische Physik und Polymerphysik

CPP 54: Gels, Polymer Networks and Elastomers II

CPP 54.6: Talk

Friday, March 13, 2026, 11:00–11:15, ZEU/0255

Crosslinking Mechanisms of Alginate-based Graft Copolymers with Thermoresponsive Side Chains — •Wenqi Xu¹, Sofia-Falia Saravanou², Yefan Song¹, Yandong Wang¹, Joachim Kohlbrecher³, Constantinos Tsitsilianis², and Christine M. Papadakis¹ — ¹TUM School of Natural Sciences, Soft Matter Physics Group, Garching, Germany — ²University of Patras, Greece — ³PSI, Villigen, Switzerland

Alginates are naturally occurring, non-toxic polysaccharides which have seen extensive use in biomedicine. Here, we investigate an alginate-based graft copolymer, namely alginate-g-P(NIPAM₉₄-co-NtBAM₆), where a random copolymer of N-isopropylacrylamide (NIPAM) and N-tert-butyl acrylamide (NtBAM) is grafted onto a sodium alginate backbone [1]. While introducing thermoresponsive PNIPAM enables temperature-induced gelation, the hydrophobic comonomer NtBAM regulates the transition temperature and the mechanical properties of the hydrogel. The structure and the gelation mechanisms of the copolymers are studied in aqueous solutions using small-angle neutron scattering (SANS). At this, contrast matching of the backbone and the side chains was used to obtain selective information. The SANS data show strong forward scattering above the transition temperature of PNIPAM, which is attributed to the collapse of the side chains, resulting in hydrophobic globules which act as nodes of the hydrogel network.
[1] K. Safakas, C. Tsitsilianis. Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2021, 22(8), 3824.

Keywords: Alginates; Hydrogel; Polymer solution; Polymer conformation; Neutron scattering