Chemical Research in Chinese Universities ›› 2017, Vol. 33 ›› Issue (2): 261-267.doi: 10.1007/s40242-017-6354-0

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Molecular Dynamics Simulation of Antipolyelectrolyte Effect and Solubility of Polyzwitterions

YANG Shengchun1,2, ZHU Youliang3, QIAN Hujun1, LÜ Zhongyuan1   

  1. 1. State Key Laboratory of Supramolecular Structure and Materials, Institute of Theoretical Chemistry, Jilin University, Changchun 130021, P. R. China;
    2. School of Information Engineering, Northeast Electric Power University, Jilin 132012, P. R. China;
    3. State Key Laboratory of Polymer Physics and Chemistry, Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun 130022, P. R. China
  • Received:2016-08-24 Revised:2016-09-14 Online:2017-04-01 Published:2016-10-31
  • Contact: QIAN Hujun,E-mail:hjqian@jlu.edu.cn E-mail:hjqian@jlu.edu.cn
  • Supported by:

    Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Nos.21522401, 21374043, 21534004) and the National Basic Research Program of China(No.2012CB821500).

Abstract:

In this work, by using coarse-grained molecular dynamics simulations, we found that poly(2-methacryloyloxyethyl phosphorylcholine)(PMPC) showed a strong solubility and a so-called antipolyelectrolyte effect(APE) in water. In contrast, obvious aggregations but no APE were found in n-butyl-substituted choline phosphate polymers(PMBP) solutions. The underlying mechanisms for different solution behaviors of PMPC and PMBP were investigated in detail. Our results indicate that the presence of butyl groups in PMBP enhances both the electrostatic interactions and the hydrophobicity of PMBP molecules in the system. Both factors were found to contribute to the formations of aggregates in the PMBP system. Further researches revealed that hydrophobicity arising from the butyl group plays a more important role than electrostatic interactions in inducing the PMBP aggregation. In addition, the strong hydrophobicity in PMBP was found to be responsible for the absence of APE. These results are expected to contribute to a better understanding and a better design of the solution properties of polyzwitterions.

Key words: Polyzwitterion, Antipolyelectrolyte, Solubility, Dissipative particle dynamics(DPD)