Polysulfobetaines, polymers carrying highly\ud
polar zwitterionic side chains, present a promising research\ud
field by virtue of their antifouling properties, hemocompatibility,\ud
and stimulus-responsive behavior. However, limited\ud
synthetic approaches exist to produce sulfobetaine copolymers\ud
comprising hydrophobic components. Postpolymerization\ud
modification of an activated ester precursor, poly-\ud
(pentafluorophenyl acrylate), employing a zwitterionic\ud
amine, 3-((3-aminopropyl)dimethylammonio)propane-1-sulfonate,\ud
ADPS, is presented as a novel, one-step synthetic\ud
concept toward sulfobetaine (co)polymers. Modifications were\ud
performed in homogeneous solution using propylene carbonate\ud
as solvent with mixtures of ADPS and pentylamine,\ud
benzylamine, and dodecylamine producing a series of well-defined statistical acrylamido sulfobetaine copolymers containing\ud
hydrophobic pentyl, benzyl, or dodecylacrylamide comonomers with well-controllable molar composition as evidenced by NMR\ud
and FT-IR spectroscopy and size exclusion chromatography. This synthetic strategy was exploited to investigate, for the first\ud
time, the influence of hydrophobic modification on the upper critical solution temperature (UCST) of sulfobetaine copolymers\ud
in aqueous solution. Surprisingly, incorporation of pentyl groups was found to increase solubility over a wide composition range,\ud
whereas benzyl groups decreased solubilityan effect attributed to different entropic and enthalpic contributions of both\ud
functional groups. While UCST transitions of polysulfobetaines are typically limited to higher molar mass samples, incorporation\ud
of 0−65 mol % of benzyl groups into copolymers with molar masses of 25.5−34.5 kg/mol enabled sharp, reversible transitions\ud
from 6 to 82 °C in solutions containing up to 76 mM NaCl, as observed by optical transmittance and dynamic light scattering.\ud
Both synthesis and systematic UCST increase of sulfobetaine copolymers presented here are expected to expand the scope and\ud
applicability of these smart material