Polymeric Fluorosurfactant‐Mediated Perfluorocarbon Emulsions

Polymeric fluorosurfactants, using poly(N,N‐dimethylacrylamide) (PDMA) or PDMA copolymers containing acrylic acid (AA) or 2‐acrylamido‐2‐methyl‐1‐propanesulfonic acid (AMPS) comonomers were synthesized by copolymerization of DMA, DMA/AA, or DMA/AMPS and methacrylates composed of 1,1‐dihydroperfluorodecanoyl groups separated from the methacrylate by polyethylene glycol (PEG) groups with molecular weights ranging from 1 to 6 kD. The stability of aqueous perfluorocarbon (PFC) emulsions mediated by these polymeric fluorosurfactants was found to be affected by polymer concentration, ionic comonomer content, perfluoroalkyl (R_F) comonomer content, and PEG spacer length. Thus, emulsion stability characterized by average particle size and morphology was improved by increased AA or AMPS content (up to 30 weight percent), increased PEG chain length and R_F comonomer content, and greater polymer concentration.

Keywords:

• Perfluorocarbon emulsion
• fluorosurfactant
• polyethylene glycol
• copolymer
• terpolymer

Acknowledgments

This research was supported by NSF‐BES Grant 0003006. We thank Dr. Jinbo Hu, USC Department of Chemistry, for providing the four‐arm star PEG precursor and Dr. Li‐Yueh Hsu and Jeng‐hao Pai for image analysis.