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Rheological properties of thermoresponsive nanocomposite hydrogels
Author(s) -
Hosseini Hossein,
Tenhu Heikki,
Hietala Sami
Publication year - 2016
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.43123
Subject(s) - comonomer , self healing hydrogels , materials science , cationic polymerization , polymer chemistry , nanocomposite , swelling , copolymer , hectorite , photopolymer , chemical engineering , lower critical solution temperature , viscoelasticity , composite material , polymerization , polymer , montmorillonite , engineering
Highly elastic and robust nanocomposite hydrogels based on N ‐isopropylacrylamide (NIPAM) and cationic (3‐acrylamidopropyl) trimethylammonium chloride (AMPTMA) were synthesized by photopolymerization. Nanoscopic clay, laponite XLS, was added in the gels during the synthesis. The effect of a hydrophobic salt, lithium bis(trifluoromethane) sulfonimide (LiNTf 2 ), and clay content on the viscoelastic properties, swelling ratio, and stiffness of the nanocomposite hydrogels were investigated as a function of temperature. Synthetic clay served as a multifunctional cross‐linker, producing hydrogels with enhanced elastic properties. Anionic NTf 2 binds to the cationic comonomer units and significantly affected the viscoelasticity and thermal properties. DSC measurements showed that the volume phase transition temperature and its enthalpy changed with the clay content and with introducing the cationic comonomer (AMPTMA) in the PNIPAM network. With the addition of either laponite XLS or the comonomer and 5 mM solution of LiNTf 2 , a fourfold and fivefold increase in elastic modulus was obtained, respectively, compared to that of the homopolymer PNIPAM hydrogel. With increasing the temperature from 20 to 45°C for the copolymer gel with 10% AMPTMA in 5 mM LiNTf 2 , the elastic modulus grew 15 times larger. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2016 , 133 , 43123.