Temperature-/CO2-dual-responsiveness of a zwitterionic “schizophrenic” copolymer

Abstract

A zwitterionic “schizophrenic” copolymer with dual-responsiveness to temperature and carbon dioxide self-assembles to undergo a reversible phase transition in a weakly alkaline borate buffer solution. It can be switched “on” and “off” when sequentially treated with carbon dioxide/nitrogen (CO2/N2) due to the protonation-deprotonation of the tertiary amine groups along the polymer skeleton.