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Synthesis and characterization of novel, temperature‐sensitive microgels based on N ‐isopropylacrylamide and tert ‐butyl acrylate
Author(s) -
Zhang QingSong,
Zha LiuSheng,
Ma JingHong,
Liang BoRun
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
journal of applied polymer science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.575
H-Index - 166
eISSN - 1097-4628
pISSN - 0021-8995
DOI - 10.1002/app.25423
Subject(s) - comonomer , poly(n isopropylacrylamide) , polymer chemistry , acrylate , emulsion polymerization , materials science , copolymer , dynamic light scattering , monomer , polymerization , fourier transform infrared spectroscopy , swelling , chemical engineering , polymer , composite material , nanotechnology , nanoparticle , engineering
A series of temperature‐sensitive microgels based on N ‐isopropylacrylamide as the main monomer, tert ‐butyl acrylate (tBA) as the comonomer, and N,N ′‐methylene‐bis(acrylamide) as the crosslinker were synthesized with a modified surfactant‐free emulsion polymerization method. The chemical structure and global shape with an excellent monodispersity of the microgels were confirmed by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy, respectively. The temperature‐sensitive behavior of the microgels was investigated by dynamic light scattering and ultraviolet–visible spectrophotometric analysis. The results show that the volume phase‐transition temperature of the poly( N ‐isopropylacrylamide‐ co ‐ tert ‐butyl acrylate) [poly(NIPAM‐ co ‐tBA)] microgels were tuned over a broad range by the incorporated amount of tBA comonomer and their temperature sensitivity decreased with increasing content of tBA units incorporated into the microgel network. Furthermore, the swelling ratios of the poly (NIPAM‐ co ‐tBA) microgels were lowered gradually with increasing tBA unit content within the microgel network. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 103: 2962–2967, 2007