A Tapered Optical Fiber Interferometer Study on the Microdynamics Phase Separation Mechanism of the Poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) Aqueous Solution

Phase separation process of poly (N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAM) aqueous solution was investigated by tapered optical fiber technique in this work. The optical transmission spectra revealed the transition of molecular conformation and aggregation of molecular chains in the course of phase separation and identified the lower critical solution temperatures (LCST) in a simple and clear way. It was found that upon heating PNIPAM chains changed from expanded coils to collapsed globules and then aggregated. It offers a new characterization technique for studying phase separation of polymer solutions or blends, and could provide abundant information of the interaction between two different macromolecules, revealing the internal mechanism of the interaction.