What is it about?
This letter reports on Pluronic solutions in water (H2O) and deuterated water (D2O). The substitution of water by heavy water as a solvent has a noticeable influence on the system phase behaviour. These results evidence that the properties and phase behaviour of amphiphilic materials as Pluronics can be hugely influenced by the solvent isotopic composition.
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Why is it important?
The significance of the findings also hinges on the crucial role that experimental methodologies play in understanding the link between the system macroscopic flow properties and the corresponding microstructural evolution. Indeed, the common practices for experimentally characterizing Pluronic solutions–such as rheology and scattering techniques–often provide their bulk and microstructural description without discerning between the material preparation in water and deuterated water, implicitly assuming no thermodynamical and physical chemistry modifications by isotopic substitution.
Perspectives
The current article can provide a fundamental insight given that D2O and H2O are most often used interchangeably in the scattering community (with the purpose of reduce background noise) without considering their effect.
Nicola Antonio Di Spirito
Universita degli Studi di Napoli Federico II
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: A Pluronic block copolymer in H2O and D2O: The isotope effect on phase transition, Physics of Fluids, December 2024, American Institute of Physics,
DOI: 10.1063/5.0247190.
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