Investigation of effective parameters on cloud point of poly(acrylamide-co-acrylonitrile) in aqueous solutions

Polyacrylamide is one of the well-known water-soluble polymers which can be converted into a thermoresponsive polymer possessing an upper critical solution temperature (UCST) by copolymerizing with acrylonitrile using the free radical polymerization (FRP) method. The synthesized copolymers showed a UCST in water under ambient conditions, driven by the effect of hydrophobic interaction among the acrylonitrile moieties. The cloud point of the copolymers can be affected by several parameters like copolymer composition, polymer concentration, and the effect of the third monomer type and content. In this study, the effect of mentioned parameters on cloud point of copolymers was investigated by UV-Vis spectroscopy. The obtained results could use in designing responsive systems with tunable cloud point for specific applications like drug delivery systems, smart sensors, etc.