“…The influence of polymer concentration on the LCST has been extensively explored, and the trend observed in the current study agreed with those from the literature. ,, It could be attributed to the enhanced intermolecular aggregation with increasing concentration. However, much less attention has been given to the influence of molecular architecture on LCST behaviors. ,, Considering that the LCST of PEG chains in aqueous solutions is usually attributed to the thermodissociation of hydrogen bonds between the oxygen atoms in the ethylene glycol unit and water molecules upon heating, , plausible reasons could be raised for the molecular architecture-dependent LCST behaviors. When the molecular weight of PEG chains increased, the overall hydrogen bonding interaction strength between the copolymer and surrounding water molecules increased, requiring a higher temperature to break the hydrogen bonding interaction. ,, Similarly, longer GAP arms on the copolymers also led to enhanced hydrogen bonding interactions, resulting in a higher CP. , Meanwhile, despite the same PEG chain length, without the high grafting density, the linear PEG- g -GAP-10 brushes or PEG homopolymers could not show LCST behaviors due to their much higher configurational entropy and, thus, higher solubility in water.…”