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Poly(vinyl methyl ether) hydrogel formed by high energy irradiation
Author(s) -
Arndt KarlFr.,
Schmidt Thomas,
Menge Heike
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
macromolecular symposia
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.257
H-Index - 76
eISSN - 1521-3900
pISSN - 1022-1360
DOI - 10.1002/1521-3900(200102)164:1<313::aid-masy313>3.0.co;2-d
Subject(s) - polymer , materials science , ether , polymer chemistry , aqueous solution , vinyl ether , scanning electron microscope , irradiation , relaxation (psychology) , chemical engineering , monomer , composite material , chemistry , organic chemistry , physics , nuclear physics , engineering , psychology , social psychology
Poly(vinyl methyl ether) shows a lower critical solution temperature behavior in water. The dimension of the polymer molecules depends on the temperature. A thermo‐sensitive hydrogel was synthesized by irradiation of an aqueous solution of poly(vinyl methyl ether) with electron beam and γ‐rays. At high polymer concentration a bulk gel was formed. The structure of the gel in the dry, swollen and shrunken state was investigated by field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM). It could be shown, that the gel synthesized by electron beam has a sponge‐like structure consisting of cavities (≈1 μm) separated from each other by a polymer layer full of holes (≈10 nm). The macroscopic gel is characterized by several techniques, e.g. determination of the M c ‐value by NMR‐relaxation measurements.