Preparation and characterization of poly(NIPAAm- co-AMPS- co-Fe(phen)) self-oscillating copolymers.

A novel self-oscillating copolymer was prepared by utilizing Fe(phen) as the catalyst of the Belousov -Zhabotinsky (BZ) reaction. In this study, 2-acrylamido-2-methylpropane sulfonic acid (AMPS) was newly introduced into the copolymer of N-isopropylacrylamide (NIPAAm) and Fe(phen) as the Hproviding agent for the BZ reaction. The results indicated that the copolymer solution underwent soluble-insoluble self-oscillation only in malonic acid (MA) and potassium bromate(KBrO) mixture solution, and the amplitudes were much bigger than those of poly(NIPAAm- co-Fe(phen)). That is to say, the novel copolymer succeeds in self-oscillating under acid-free conditions. Moreover, the oscillating characteristics were closely related to the content of AMPS in the copolymer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]