Phase transition of poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) in aqueous protic ionic liquids: kosmotropic versus chaotropic anions and their interaction with water

Greasy Cations Bind to Neutral Macromolecules in Aqueous Solution

Ions influence the solution properties of macromolecules. Although much is known about anions, cationic effects are considered mostly in terms of weak interactions or exclusion from neutral interfaces. Herein, we have systematically studied the effect of quaternary tetraalkylammonium cations (NH4+, NMe4+, NEt4+, NPr4+, NBu4+) on the phase transition of poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAM) in aqueous solution. Solubility measurements were coupled to 1H NMR and ATR-FTIR spectroscopic measurements. The solubility and NMR measurements revealed a direct binding between the greasiest cations and the isopropyl group of the macromolecule, evidenced from the nonlinear, Langmuir-type chemical shift response only at the isopropyl NMR signals with increasing salt concentrations. The ATR-FTIR measurements focusing on the amide oxygen showed that it is not the main direct-binding site. Additionally, the salting-out effects of the greasier cations correlate with their hydration entropies. These results demonstrate that the most weakly hydrated cations can bind to macromolecules as strongly as the weakly hydrated Hofmeister anions.

Recent advances in poly(ionic liquid)s for biomedical application

Poly(ionic liquid)s (PILs) are polymers containing ions in their side-chain or backbone, and the designability and outstanding physicochemical properties of PILs have attracted widespread attention from researchers. PILs have specific characteristics, including negligible vapor pressure, high thermal and chemical stability, non-flammability, and self-assembly capabilities. PILs can be well combined with advanced analytical instruments and technology and have made outstanding contributions to the development of biomedicine aiding in the continuous advancement of science and technology. Here we reviewed the advances of PILs in the biomedical field in the past five years with a focus on applications in proteomics, drug delivery, and development. This paper aims to engage pharmaceutical and biomedical scientists to full understand PILs and accelerate the progress from laboratory research to industrialization.

Protein aggregation and crystallization with ionic liquids: Insights into the influence of solvent properties

Ionic liquids (ILs) have been used in solvents for proteins in many applications, including biotechnology, pharmaceutics, and medicine due to their tunable physicochemical and biological properties. Protein aggregation is often undesirable, and predominantly occurs during bioprocesses, while the aggregation process can be reversible or irreversible and the aggregates formed can be native/non-native and soluble/insoluble. Recent studies have clearly identified key properties of ILs and IL-water mixtures related to protein performance, suggesting the use of the tailorable properties of ILs to inhibit protein aggregation, to promote protein crystallization, and to control protein aggregation pathways. This review discusses the critical properties of IL and IL-water mixtures and presents the latest understanding of the protein aggregation pathways and the development of IL systems that affect or control the protein aggregation process. Through this feature article, we hope to inspire further advances in understanding and new approaches to controlling protein behavior to optimize bioprocesses.

Effect of Increased Ionic Liquid Uptake via Thermal Annealing on Mechanical Properties of Polyimide-Poly(ethylene glycol) Segmented Block Copolymer Membranes

Proton exchange membranes (PEMs) suffer performance degradation under certain conditions-temperatures greater than 80 °C, relative humidity less than 50%, and water retention less than 22%. Novel materials are needed that have improved water retention, stability at higher temperatures, flexibility, conductivity, and the ability to function at low humidity. This work focuses on polyimide-poly(ethylene glycol) (PI-PEG) segmented block copolymer (SBC) membranes with high conductivity and mechanical strength. Membranes were prepared with one of two ionic liquids (ILs), either ethylammonium nitrate (EAN) or propylammonium nitrate (PAN), incorporated within the membrane structure to enhance the proton exchange capability. Ionic liquid uptake capacities were compared for two different temperatures, 25 and 60 °C. Then, conductivities were measured for a series of combinations of undoped or doped unannealed and undoped or doped annealed membranes. Stress and strain tests were performed for unannealed and thermally annealed undoped membranes. Later, these experiments were repeated for doped unannealed and thermally annealed. Mechanical and conductivity data were interpreted in the context of prior small angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) studies on similar materials. We have shown that varying the compositions of polyimide-poly(ethylene glycol) (PI-PEG) SBCs allowed the morphology in the system to be tuned. Since polyimides (PI) are made from the condensation of dianhydrides and diamines, this was accomplished using components having different functional groups. Dianhydrides having either fluorinated or oxygenated functional groups and diamines having either fluorinated or oxygenated diamines were used as well as mixtures of these species. Changing the morphology by creating macrophase separation elevated the IL uptake capacities, and in turn, increased their conductivities by a factor of three or more compared to Nafion 115. The stiffness of the membranes synthesized in this work was comparable to Nafion 115 and, thus, sufficient for practical applications.

Utilizing Water Activity as a Simple Measure to Understand Hydrophobicity in Ionic Liquids

Ionic liquids (ILs) are regarded as designable solvents finding use in a variety of applications. One of the challenges of the design and selection process is to understand the ionic liquid properties. In this work, we selected seven ILs containing three types of hydrophilic anions and examined several key properties, which are correlated to hydrophobicity. In particular, we measured the hydrogen bond basicity β and water activity a_w of IL and IL-water mixtures, and suggested that these two properties are linearly correlated particularly in hydrated ILs. We then used NMR to evaluate the chemical shift of H₂O in hydrated ILs. Correlating the outcomes of each of these techniques with respect to understanding the hydrophobicity of the ILs is discussed. It is shown that water activity a_w is the most facile technique to represent and understand hydrophobicity of ILs.

Chemomechanical Motion of a Self-Oscillating Gel in a Protic Ionic Liquid

An autonomous swelling-deswelling oscillation of polymer gels in a hydrated protic ionic liquid (PIL) as a proton source for the Belousov-Zhabotinsky (BZ) reaction is presented. Methylammonium hydrogen sulfate ([maH⁺ ][HSO₄ ^- ]) was employed as the PIL because it provides stable redox oscillation in the BZ reaction. Due to the significantly higher pK_a for [maH⁺ ][HSO₄ ^- ] than those for conventional proton sources for the BZ reaction, chemomechanical oscillation can be expected under weaker acidic conditions. The self-oscillating polymer was designed as a ternary random copolymer of N-isopropylacrylamide, N-(3-aminopropyl)methacrylamide, and the Ru(bpy)₃ moiety as a catalyst for the BZ reaction. The copolymer exhibited spontaneous soluble-insoluble oscillation in hydrated [maH⁺ ][HSO₄ ^- ] containing NaBrO₃ and malonic acid. Macroscopic swelling-deswelling oscillation of the porous bulk gel prepared by covalently connecting microgel particles was also observed.

Influence of additives on thermoresponsive polymers in aqueous media: a case study of poly(N-isopropylacrylamide)

Thermoresponsive polymers (TRPs) in different solvent media have been studied over a long period and are important from both scientific and technical points of view.

Multiple interaction regulated phase transition behavior of thermo-responsive copolymers containing cationic poly(ionic liquid)s

Schematic illustration of the phase transition mechanism of the P(OEGMA-co-BVIm[SCN]) copolymer.

Ion specificities of artificial macromolecules

Artificial macromolecules are well-defined synthetic polymers, with a relatively simple structure as compared to naturally occurring macromolecules. This review focuses on the ion specificities of artifical macromolecules. Ion specificities are influenced by solvent-mediated indirect ion-macromolecule interactions and also by direct ion-macromolecule interactions. In aqueous solutions, the role of water-mediated indirect ion-macromolecule interactions will be discussed. The addition of organic solvents to aqueous solutions significantly changes the ion specificities due to the formation of water-organic solvent complexes. For direct ion-macromolecule interactions, we will discuss specific ion-pairing interactions for charged macromolecules and specific ion-neutral site interactions for uncharged macromolecules. When the medium conditions change from dilute solutions to crowded environments, the ion specificities can be modified by either the volume exclusion effect, the variation of dielectric constant, or the interactions between ions, macromolecules, and crowding agents.

Influence of imidazolium based green solvents on volume phase transition temperature of crosslinked poly(N-isopropylacrylamide-co-acrylic acid) hydrogel

The volume phase transition temperature (VPTT) of crosslinked poly(N-isopropylacrylamide-co-acrylic acid) (PNIPAM-co-AA) hydrogel in water in the presence of five imidazolium based ionic liquids (ILs) was studied. The VPTT of PNIPAM-co-AA hydrogel can be modulated to different extents by the addition of different amounts of ILs. The modulations in VPTT values can be attributed to the IL-induced alterations in hydrophobic, hydrophilic and hydrogen bonding interactions of PNIPAM-co-AA hydrogel with the neighboring solvent and molecular chains. The influence of ILs having a common cation, 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium cation ([Bmim]) and different anions, such as iodide (I-), tetrafluoroborate (BF4-), chloride (Cl-), acetate (CH3COO-) and hydrogen sulfate (HSO4-), on the phase transition of PNIPAM-co-AA hydrogel was monitored by the aid of differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), dynamic light scattering (DLS) and Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy. Furthermore, the interfacial properties between aqueous IL and polymer surface were scrutinized with the help of contact angle (CA) measurements. The overall specific ranking of ILs in preserving the hydration layer around the PNIPAM-co-AA hydrogel in water was [Bmim][I]>[Bmim][BF4]>[Bmim][Cl]>[Bmim][Ac]>[Bmim][HSO4]. The trend of these ILs followed the well-known Hofmeister series. Interestingly, the PNIPAM-co-AA hydrogel in water shows abnormal salting-out property in the presence of [Bmim][BF4] at higher concentration and this abnormal behavior can be explained based on the lack of sufficient binding sites on the macromolecule for higher number of [Bmim][BF4] at a higher concentration.

Volume phase transition mechanism of poly[oligo(ethylene glycol)methacrylate] based thermo-responsive microgels with poly(ionic liquid) cross-linkers

Thermodynamic volume phase transition mechanisms of poly[oligo(ethylene glycol)methacrylate] (POEGMA) microgels with poly(ionic liquid) (PIL) cross-linking moieties were investigated in detail on the basis of Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy.