Development of temperature-responsive polymeric gels with physical crosslinking due to intermolecular 𝜋-𝜋 interactions.

Poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) PNIPAAm was polymerized with co-monomers containing a biphenyl moiety to create a unique thermoresponsive physically crosslinked system due to the presence of pi-pi interactions between the biphenyl moieties. The biphenyl monomers used were 2-phenylphenol monoacrylate (2PPMA) and 4-phenylphenol monoacrylate (4PPMA). These monomers were utilized to synthesize a set of polymers with biphenyl monomer (2PPMA/4PPMA) content from 2.