Lewis Adduct-Dissociating Hydrolysis of Boratrane for Water-Triggered Dehydration of Copolymers with a Hydrophobic Moiety.

As a new example of intrinsically water-triggered phenomena, we report underwater dehydration of the statistical copolymers synthesized from triethanolamine borate (TEAB) methacrylate and styrene (St) induced by the hydrolysis of the pendant TEAB group. TEAB possesses high polarity owing to its internal Lewis adduct structure, which is lost by hydrolysis to triethanolamine (TEA) with a lower dipole moment. Therefore, the hydration of the copolymers became unfavorable through the hydrolysis of the pendant TEAB to TEA, despite polyol formation, and through a hydrophobic interaction based on St moieties becoming alternatively dominant.