100th Anniversary of Macromolecular Science Viewpoint: The Role of Hydrophobicity in Polymer Phenomena

Abstract

The seemingly simple notion of the hydrophobic effect can be viewed from multiple angles involving theory, simulation, and experiments. This viewpoint examines five attributes of predictive models to enhance synthetic efforts as well as experimental methods to quantify hydrophobicity. In addition, we compare existing predictive models against experimental data for polymer surface tension, lower critical solution temperature, solution self-assembly morphology, and degradation behavior. Key conclusions suggest that both the Hildebrand solubility parameters (HSPs) and surface area-normalized Log P (Log P SA –1 ) values provide unique and complementary insights into polymer phenomena. In particular, HSPs appear to better describe bulk polymer phenomena for thermoplastics such as surface tension, while Log P SA –1 values are well-suited for describing and predicting the behavior of polymers in solution.

A library of thermoresponsive PEG‐based methacrylate homopolymers: How do the molar mass and number of ethylene glycol groups affect the cloud point?

“…Smart materials are materials able to respond to external stimulus, such as pH, light, temperature, and pressure. Thermoresponsive gels (TRGs) are one kind of smart materials which undergo a sol–gel transition when the temperature changes 1–5 . This thermoresponsive property and their formation of a reversible gels makes TRGs promising materials for many biomedical applications, such as tissue engineering, 6–8 protein purification, 9 3‐D bioprinting, 10,11 drug delivery, 8,12 gene therapy, 13 and other industrial applications, for example, sensors, 14,15 and catalysts 16 …”

“…Thermoresponsive gels (TRGs) are one kind of smart materials which undergo a sol-gel transition when the temperature changes. [1][2][3][4][5] This thermoresponsive property and their formation of a reversible gels makes TRGs promising materials for many biomedical applications, such as tissue engineering, [6][7][8] protein purification, 9 3-D bioprinting, 10,11 drug delivery, 8,12 gene therapy, 13 and other industrial applications, for example, sensors, 14,15 and catalysts. 16 Thermoresponsive polymers are divided into two groups, the lower critical solution temperature (LCST) polymers and the upper critical solution temperature (UCST) polymers, based on how their solubility changes as the temperature changes.…”

“…For PEGMA and NEGMA polymers, the ethylene glycol side chain was long and should be considered when calculating the DP total . No cloud point was observed even at 95 C. The DLS was conducted under 15 C because the cloud point of TEGEMA homopolymers was around room temperature.Equation(2). In Equation (2), n is the number of the EG group in the monomer.…”

Estrogenic activity of lignin-derivable alternatives to bisphenol A assessed via molecular docking simulations

“…[82][83][84][85] More positive log P values are associated with greater hydrophobicity, and more negative log P values are suggestive of stronger hydrophilicity. [86][87][88][89] It is expected that the more hydrophobic a bisphenol, the greater the probability that it will interact with ERa. 84,90 Therefore, the log P values of all the bisphenols and their respective isomers were calculated using http:// chemicalize.org by ChemAxon 79 and are listed in Table S3.…”

The Hydrophobic Effect in Chemistry, Biology and Medicine: An Update

“…Thus, the hydrophobic effect is the key to understanding protein folding [2][3][4], which apparently permeates every aspect of modern chemical biology. The hydrophobic effect is also believed to be the key to biological molecular recognition processes, particularly enzymesubstrate [5] and drug-receptor interactions [6].…”