New Route to Smart Core-Shell Polymeric Microgels: Synthesis and Properties

✍ Scribed by Man Fai Leung; Junmin Zhu; Frank W. Harris; Pei Li

• Book ID: 102496254
• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2004
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 153 KB
• Volume: 25
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1022-1336
• DOI: 10.1002/marc.200400362

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

Summary: A new method has been developed to prepare smart polymeric microgels that consist of well‐defined temperature‐sensitive cores with pH‐sensitive shells. The microgels were obtained directly from aqueous graft copolymerizations of N‐isopropylacrylamide and N,__N‐__methylenebisacrylamide from water‐soluble polymers containing amino groups such as poly(ethyleneimine) and chitosan. The gel diameters ranged from 300 to 400 nm. The unique core‐shell nanostructures, which had narrow size distributions, exhibited tuneable responses to pH and temperature.

Transmission electron micrograph of the poly(N‐isopropylacrylamide)/chitosan core‐shell microgels.

imageTransmission electron micrograph of the poly(N‐isopropylacrylamide)/chitosan core‐shell microgels.