Development of micro/macro-scale dynamic characterization system and its application to polymer gel science

聚合物凝胶由网络聚合物链和溶剂两部分组成。此外，第三组分如低分子量化合物或聚合物通常包含在凝胶中。从各种物理和化学性质的观点来看，聚合物凝胶引起了相当大的关注。例如，水电解质凝胶响应于溶剂组成、pH、离子强度和温度的变化而显示出体积的显著变化。它们在电场作用下收缩。此外，水溶胀的聚合物凝胶可以将化学能转化为机械能。这些性质导致了聚合物研究的活力和对聚合物凝胶体系开发的多样性的兴趣。为了开发新的高分子材料，在高分子科学和技术的基础上进行了高分子凝胶设计。聚合物凝胶的性质与其结构和动力学密切相关。因此，建立一套结构和动力学的研究方法，对于进行可靠的聚合物凝胶设计和开发新型的高分子凝胶具有重要意义，对高分子科学也具有重要意义。在这样的背景下，我们成功地开发了能够测定10^-10 - 10^-11 cm ^2/s的非常小的扩散系数以及关于自旋密度和扩散系数分布的三维图像图案的高场梯度自旋回波（PFGSE）NMR系统和NMR成像系统，并阐明了聚合物凝胶的结构和动力学。

Polymer gels consist of two components of network polymer chains and solvent. Further, a third component such as a low molecular-weight compound or polymer is often contained in the gels. Polymer gels have attracted considerable attention from the point-of-view of various physical and chemical properties. For example, hydroelectrolyte gels show a dramatic change in volume in response to change in solvent composition, pH, ionic strength and temperature. They contract upon application of an electric field. Further, water-swollen polymer gels can convert chemical energy into mechanical energy. These properties lead to the vitality of polymer research and development of a diversity of interests in polymer gel systems. In order to develop new polymer materials, polymer gel design has been performed on the basis of advanced polymer science and technology. The properties of polymer gels are closely related to their structures and dynamics. From such situations, the establishment of methods for elucidating the structures and dynamics is important for making reliable polymer gel design and developing new advanced polymer gels and also is important for polymer science. From such a background, we have successfully developed by high field-gradient spin-echo(PFGSE) NMR system and NMR imaging system capable of determining very small diffusion coefficients of 10^-10 - 10^-11 cm^2/s and three-dimensional image pattern about spin density and diffusion coefficient distribution, and have elucidated structure and dynamics of polymer gels.