Solution properties of amylose tris(phenylcarbamate): local conformation and chain stiffness in 1,4-dioxane and 2-ethoxyethanol

Abstract

Light and small-angle X-ray scattering, sedimentation equilibrium, viscosity, circular dichroism, and infrared absorption measurements have been made on 1,4-dioxane (DIOX) and 2-ethoxyethanol (2EE) solutions of seven amylose tris(phenylcarbamate) samples ranging in molecular weight from 2 x 10 4 to 3 x 106. Analyses of gyration radius, scattering function, and intrinsic viscosity data in terms of the wormlike chain model yield Kuhn segment lengths of 22 ± 2 nm and 16 ± 2nm in DIOX and 2EE, respectively, and a contour length per residue of 0.33 ± 0.02 nm in both, showing that the amylose derivative chain has high stiffness and a contour length slightly shorter than the known value 0.37-0.40 nm for amylosetriesters in the crystalline state. These results are consistent with the intramolecular hydrogen bonding between the C=0 and NH groups of the neighbor repeating units detected by infrared absorption and also with the locally regular (or helical) conformation indicated by circular dichroism. ©2009 The Society of Polymer Science, Japan.