Water sorption in poly(ammonium sulfopropylbetaines). I. Differential scanning calorimetry

The hydration of four amorphous acrylic and methacrylic poly(zwitterions) bearing the ammonium sulfopropylbetaine function as a side-groups () was studied by differential scanning calorimetry over broad ranges of temperature (150-400 K) and water content (weight fraction W₁ < 0.5). Analyses were made of the first-order transitions and heat capacity of sorbed water, glass transition temperature (T_g) measurements. Nonfreezable bound water, about 7.7 ± 0.9 mol/monomeric unit, behaves as a single phase: Its mobility, fairly similar to that of bulk liquid water in viscoelastic systems at T > 250 K, decreases with temperature in the glassy systems, but never disappears, even at 185 K. The depression of the glass transition temperature of the hydrated polymers obeys Couchman's equation: T_g = Σ_i W_i ΔC_pi T_gi / Σ_gi W_iΔC_pi. Freezable bound water, about 6.7 ± 0.9 mole/monomeric unit, shows multipeak melting endotherms in the range 242–272 K. Because of their charged sites, the hydration process of the poly(zwitterions) appears more similar to that of poly(electrolytes) than to that of uncharged hydrophilic polymers. © 1992 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.