Study on the morphology of the hydrophobically-modified polyelectroyte in aqueous solution by AFM measurements

This work focuses on the AFM study of the aggregation morphology and association mechanism of the hydrophobically-association water-soluble polymer P (AM-AA-BPAM) in aqueous solution. It shows that the P (AM-AA-BPAM) molecule chain, which has hydrophobic and hydrophilic ionic groups, forms the "spherical" aggregation is micelles below 0.2 g . dL(-2) and then connect each other to form the string-like aggregations, which produce large viscosity for the polymer solution. It is also coincident with the FCS, DLS, and viscosity study result. (C) 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.