Abstract: An interpolymer complexation formed by polymer chains bearing complementary proton donor and acceptor was studied. In this study, poly(styrenecooctyl acrylatecoacrylic acid) as proton donating polymer(PDP) and poly(styrenecooctyl acrylateco4vinylpyridine) as proton accepting polymer(PAP) with various macromolecular chain compositions were prepared by emulsion copolymerization. Complexed solutions formed by PDPand PAPwere prepared, and reduced viscosity enhancement of the complexed solutions were studied with viscometry. The effects of the polymer solution concentration, copolymer compositions and solvent nature on the interpolymer interactions were investigated through a comparison of the reduced viscosity enhancement factor R of different complexed solutions. The results showed that the reduced viscosities of PDP/PAPcomplexed solutions were higher than weighted average of their constituents and R increased with increasing complexed polymer solution concentration generally. With the change in mole fraction of AA(xAA) in blends, there existed a R_max indicating the strongest interaction between PDPand PAP. In toluene as an inertia solvent not impacting on acidbase interaction, due to steric shield effect of side chains in octyl acrylate unit and self association of carboxyl in PDPaltogether, mole fraction of AAcorresponding to R_max, x_AA,max, increased gradually up to 0.5 as OAcontent decreased in PDPand relatively insensitive to composition of PAP. Whereas in THFas solvent, x_AA,max was generally independent of composition of PDPand approximated to 0.5 due to THFbeing capable of destroying interpolymer interaction as well as selfassociation of carboxyl. In addition, the strength of interpolymer interaction between PDPand PAPwas increased with increasing OAcontent in component copolymers.

Key words: Specific interaction, Proton donor, Proton acceptor, Complexation