LAUSR

Abstract Although the reversibility of 10, 12-pentacosadiynoic amino meta-acid (PCDA-mBzA) against temperature and pH was reported, the modulation of reversibility by ion adsorption at terminal functional group has not been investigated. In this work, we developed a simple method for modulating the reversibility of PCDA-mBzA films upon a thermal stimulus by cadmium ion adsorption inducing the breakage of the outer hydrogen bonding of two hydrogen bonds, which are responsible for the reversible properties of PCDA-mBzA. External reflection-Fourier transform infrared (ER-FTIR) analyses revealed that the hydrogen bonding between the carboxylic acid groups was broken through ion adsorption and only a single hydrogen bond between the amide groups remained in the PCDA-mBzA polymer. In addition, PCDA-mBzA films could recover their original property through cadmium ion desorption. These results present that the transition between reversibility and irreversibility can be modulated artificially simply through the adsorption and desorption of metal ions.