Concentration and solvent induced micellization of F68 tri-block copolymer

Abstract

The Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy is used to study the binary mixtures of F68/water and F68/p-xylene. The results show that in aqueous solution the wavenumbers of the two bands associated to the O-H and C-O-C vibrations are inversely proportional. This can be explained by the fact that the dehydrated methylene groups approach by the hydrophobic interaction to form hydrophobic cores, which lead to a breakdown of the hydrogen bond between water and C-O-C. The spectrum associated to the binary mixture F68/p-xylene show that F68 exists as nonassociated molecules (unimers) at room temperature. The results of the ternary mixtures of the F68/p-xylene/water show a change in the spectra on the level of the vibrations of the O-H and C-O-C groups which is attributed to the change of structure following the variation of the concentration from unimers to large aggregates.