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Polymers that exhibit a lower critical solution temperature (LCST) have been of great interest for various biological applications such as drug or gene delivery, controlled release systems, and biosensing. Tuning the LCST behavior through control over polymer composition (e.g., upon copolymerization of monomers with different hydrophobicity) is a widely used method, as the phase transition is greatly affected by the hydrophilic/hydrophobic balance of the copolymers. However, the lack of a general method that relates copolymer hydrophobicity to their temperature response leads to exhaustive experiments when seeking to obtain polymers with desired properties. This is particularly challenging when the target copolymers are comprised of monomers that individually form nonresponsive homopolymers, that is, only when copolymerized do they display thermoresponsive behavior. In this study, we sought to develop a predictive relationship between polymer hydrophobicity and cloud point temperature ( |
