Water swelling, brine soluble imidazole based zwitterionic polymers--synthesis and study of reversible UCST behaviour and gel-sol transitions.

New vinylbenzene substituted imidazole based zwitterionic polymers with unique characteristics like swelling in water and solubility in concentrated brine solution in which they exhibited a reversible upper critical solution temperature (UCST) and gel-sol transitions are reported herein.