A new application of Krafft point concept: an ultraviolet-shielded surfactant switchable window

Yihan Liu; Yiyi Guo; Zhuo Zhang; Zhaohui Huang; Ping Qi; Jiwei Cui; Aixin Song; Jingcheng Hao

doi:10.1039/d0cc01727b

A new application of Krafft point concept: an ultraviolet-shielded surfactant switchable window

Chem Commun (Camb). 2020 May 14;56(39):5315-5318. doi: 10.1039/d0cc01727b. Epub 2020 Apr 13.

Authors

Yihan Liu¹, Yiyi Guo, Zhuo Zhang, Zhaohui Huang, Ping Qi, Jiwei Cui, Aixin Song, Jingcheng Hao

Affiliation

¹ Key Laboratory of Colloid and Interface Chemistry (Ministry of Education), Shandong University, Jinan 250100, China. aixinsong@sdu.edu.cn jhao@sdu.edu.cn.

PMID: 32282006
DOI: 10.1039/d0cc01727b

Abstract

We report thermo-responsive gels of polyacrylamide (PAAm) with ionic surfactants in mixed water and ethylene glycol (W-EG) solvents as smart windows to solubilize ultraviolet absorbents for UV shielding materials. The Krafft point (T_K) of the ionic surfactants determines the phase transition that switches the transparency and opacity of the gels. The T_K can be flexibly tuned within a wide temperature range (6-75 °C) with high predictability by changing the surfactant or adjusting the ratio of W-EG solvents.