Reversible Electrogelation in Poly(acrylic acid) Aqueous Solutions Triggered by Redox Reactions of Counterions

✍ Scribed by Shuying He; Biye Ren; Xinxing Liu; Zhen Tong

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2010
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 416 KB
• Volume: 211
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1022-1352
• DOI: 10.1002/macp.201000429

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

A facile, electrically induced reversible gelation in a PAA aqueous solution containing Fe ions has been realized. The PAA solution is converted into a homogeneous hydrogel when the ferrous ions are electro‐oxidized to ferric ions and this gel is restored to solution by electro‐reduction of the ferric ions to ferrous ions. This sol/gel transition is completely reversible by changing the electrode polarity. The stoichiometric relation between the gel weight and charge quantity is investigated by chronocoulometry and no saturation for gelation is observed even after 5 000 s. The cyclic voltammetry and polarization current have been measured on this gelation system to reveal the kinetic reversibility and redox species of the electrode process under specified electric potential.
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