N-Isopropylacrylamide Copolymers with Acrylamide and Methacrylamide Derivatives of Cholic Acid: Synthesis and Characterization

By free radical polymerization, we have prepared a series of water-soluble, thermosensitive copolymers based on N-isopropylacrylamide and (meth)acrylamide derivatives of cholic acid, one of the bile acids. The copolymers contained 1–7 mol-% of the (meth)acrylamide derivatives of cholic acid. The chemical composition in the copolymers was studied by NMR spectroscopy and was found to be close to the original composition of the comonomers in the feed prior to polymerization. The lower critical solution temperatures (LCST) of the polymer solutions were measured by means of differential scanning calorimetry and turbidimetry. The resulting copolymers exhibit systematic changes in their LCSTs as a function of their chemical composition, as the incorporation of hydrophobic comonomers leads to a lower LCST.