Hydrophobically associating copolymers of acrylamide (AM) with a small amount of 4-(omega-propenoyloxyethoxy) benzoic acid (PEBA, <2.5%) were synthesized by template copolymerization in the presence of poly(allylammonium chloride) (PAAC) as a template in an aqueous medium. These template copolymers exhibited remarkable thickening properties due to the effective hydrophobic association, which were similar to those copolymers with a multiblock structure obtained by the micellar process. The pH of the reaction medium and the molecular weight of the template strongly influenced the thickening properties of the products. In the experimental range, the higher the PEBA content, the larger the thickening capacity of these hydrophobic copolymers. The aggregate behaviors of these copolymers were studied by fluorescence, transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and light scattering techniques. The apparent critical interpolymer aggregate concentration (cac) of the copolymer solution was about 0.5 g/dL. As the concentration of the copolymer became higher than the cac, the aggregates changed their morphology from small hollow spheres to big flower-shaped aggregates. All the above results indicated that the template copolymerization gave access to a very simple and powerful means for the preparation of hydrophobically associating copolymers and other functional polymer materials.

Stable fluorescent carbon nanoparticles (FCNPs) with excellent water-solubility were prepared firstly by one-step ultrasonic treatment from the blending of glucose and sodium hydroxide. Then, the fluorescence calcium alginate fibers were successfully prepared through wet spinning, using the mixture of FCNPs and sodium alginate solution as the spinning dope. The fluorescent property of FCNPs and fibers were investigated using fluorescence spectrophotometer. Single fiber strength tester was used to measure the strength of the fluorescence fibers. The results showed that both FCNPs and fibers emitted bright blue color under 350nm wavelength UV irradiation. The strength of the fibers was improved when the content of FCNPs in the fibers achieved certain value.