The viscosity and viscoelasticity of polyelectrolyte solutions with a single electrostatic interaction have been carefully studied experimentally and theoretically. Despite some theoretical models describe experimental results well, the influence of multiple interactions (electrostatic and hydrophobic) on rheological scaling is not yet fully resolved. Herein, we systematically study the microstructures and rheological properties of short-side-chain perfluorosulfonic acid (S-PFSA), the most promising candidate of a proton exchange membrane composed of a hydrophobic backbone with hydrophilic side-chains, in water/2-propanol. Small-angle X-ray scattering confirms that semiflexible S-PFSA colloidal particles with a length of ~38 nm and a diameter of 1–1.3 nm are formed, and the concentration dependence of the correlation length (ξ) obeys the power law ξ~c−0.5consistent with the prediction of Dobrynin et al. By combining macrorheology with diffusing wave spectroscopy microrheology, the semidilute unentangled, semidilute entangled, and concentrated regimes corresponding to the scaling relationships ηsp~c0.5, ηsp~c1.5, and ηsp~c4.1are determined. The linear viscoelasticity indicates that the entanglement concentration (ce) obtained from the dependence of ηspon the polymer concentration is underestimated owing to hydrophobic interaction. The true entanglement concentration (cte) is obtained by extrapolating the plateau modulus (Ge) to the terminal modulus (Gt). Furthermore, Geand the plateau width, τr/τe(τrand τedenote reptation time and Rouse time), scale as Ge~c2.4and τr/τe~c4.2, suggesting that S-PFSA dispersions behave like neutral polymer solutions in the concentrated regime. This work provides mechanistic insight into the rheological behavior of an S-PFSA dispersion, enabling quantitative control over the flow properties in the process of solution coating.
One of the obvious shortcomings of bio-based shape memory polyurethanes (Bio-SMPUs), which usually use natural oil based polyols as the soft segment, is their low mechanical strength because the long dangling chains (six to eight carbons) in these polyols prevent the Bio-SMPUs from deep micro-phase separation, and consequently deteriorate their mechanical properties. In this work, we prepared a bio-based polyester diol for the soft segment, in which short side chains (CC) were used to tune the transition temperature and the morphology of the Bio-SMPUs. The moderate concentration of short branch chains barely affects the micro-phase separation, and the mechanical properties of the Bio-SMPUs are quite satisfactory. With the same 70 wt% soft segment content, the tensile strength in this work is 13.2 MPa, while the one using ricinoleate-based soft segments reported 2.8 MPa. Through proper shape memory programming, the synthesized Bio-SMPUs show good shape memory properties with a shape fixing rate of greater than 98% and a shape recovery rate of 85% in the first cycle and greater than 90% in the following cycles. This study provides a framework for developing bio-based SMPUs with high mechanical and good shape memory properties at the same time.