Gelation process of Tetra-PEG ion-gel investigated by time-resolved dynamic light scattering

The dynamics of Tetra-PEG prepolymer in ionic liquid (IL) and their gelation kinetics were investigated by means of time-resolved dynamic light scattering (TR-DLS). From the DLS measurements of prepolymer solutions at chain-overlapping concentration, c*, it was found that the prepolymers are dispersed homogeneously in the IL. The intensity correlation functions (ICFs) were well fitted with the sum of single and stretched exponential function throughout the gelation process, indicating that the dynamics of the gelation process always had both a fast and slow modes. In addition, we compared the gelation process with that of Tetra-PEG hydrogel. As a result, it was found for the hydrogel system, that relatively homogeneous network represented by a single exponential curve was obtained, while the network represented by stretched exponential function was formed for the ion gel system.