Abstract
In the present work, a systematic series of poly(N-isopropylacrylamide)(NIPAM) –poly(N-tert-butylacrylamide) (NtBAM) copolymer microgels is prepared by surfactant-free emulsion polymerisation using N,N′-methylenebis(acrylamide) (BIS) as cross-linker. The thermoresponsive behaviour of these colloids was studied in detail applying different scattering techniques. The swelling curves obtained on the basis of photon correlation spectroscopy (PCS) are analysed using the theoretical model of Flory and Rehner. The PCS measurements reveal the narrow particle size distribution of the poly(NIPAM-co-NtBAM) microgels and a decreasing hydrodynamic radius as well as a decreasing volume phase transition temperature (VPTT) with increasing comonomer content. The description of the swelling ratio α as a function of temperature by the Flory–Rehner theory for uncharged homopolymer gels was only partially satisfying and fails for higher comonomer contents. In addition, small angle neutron scattering (SANS) is used to study the internal network structure of these microgels, and the polymer network is characterised in terms of the correlation length ξ. Above the transition temperature, only interfacial scattering from the totally collapsed particles in water can be observed. Due to a certain surface roughness of the copolymer microgels, the SANS profiles beyond the VPTT were fitted using a modified Porod law.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Bradley M, Vincent B, Burnett G (2009) Uptake and release of surfactants from polyampholyte microgel particles. Colloid Polym Sci 287:345–350
Dusek K (1993) Responsive gels: volume transitions I. In: Advances in polymer science, 1st edn., vol 109. Springer, Berlin
Dusek K (1993) Responsive gels: volume transitions II. In: Advances in polymer science, 1st edn., vol 110. Springer, Berlin
Hoshino Y, Urakami T, Kodama T, Koide H, Oku N, Okahata Y, Shea KJ (2009) Design of synthetic polymer nanoparticles that capture and neutralize a toxic peptide. Small 5:1562–1568
Tanaka T, Fillmore DJ (1979) Kinetics of swelling of gels. J Chem Phys 70(3):1214–1218
Li Y, Tanaka T (1990) Kinetics of swelling and shrinking of gels. J Chem Phys 92(2):1365
Yoshida R, Uchida K, Kaneko Y, Sakai K, Kikuchi A, Sakurai Y, Okano T (1995) Comb-type grafted hydrogels with rapid deswelling response to temperature changes. Nature 374:240
Kaneko Y, Nakamura S, Sakai K, Aoyagi T, Kikuchi A, Sakurai Y, Okano T (1998) Rapid deswelling response of poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) hydrogels by the formation of water release channels using poly(ethylene oxide) graft chains Macromolecules 31:6099
Pelton R (2000) Temperature-sensitive aqueous microgels. Adv Colloid Interface Sci 85:1–33
Nayak S, Lyon LA (2005) Soft nanotechnology with soft nanoparticles. Angew Chem Int Ed 44:7686–7708
Ballauff M, Lu Y (2007) “Smart” nanoparticles: preparation, characterization and applications, Polymer 48:1815–1823
Karg M, Hellweg T (2009) New smart poly(NIPAM) microgels and nanoparticle microgel hybrids: properties and advances in characterisation. Curr Opin Colloid Interface Sci 14:438–450
Karg M, Hellweg T (2009) Smart inorganic/organic hybrid microgels: synthesis and characterisation. J Mater Chem 19:8714–8715
Pelton RH, Chibante P (1986) Preparation of aqueous latices with N-isopropylacrylamide. Colloids Surf 20:247–256
Karg M, Pastoriza-Santos I, Rodriguez-González B, von Klitzing R, Wellert S, Hellweg T (2008) Temperature, pH, and ionic strength induced changes of the swelling behavior of PNIPAM-poly(allylacetic acid) copolymer microgels. Langmuir 24(12):6300–6306
Kratz K, Hellweg Th, Eimer W (2000) Influence of charge density on the swelling of colloidal poly(N-isopropylacrylamide-co-acrylic acid) microgels. Colloids Surf A 170(2–3):137–149
Kim J-H, Ballauff M (1999) The volume transition in thermosensitive core–shell latex particles containing charged groups. Colloid Polym Sci 277:1210–1214
Snowden MJ, Chowdhry BZ, Vincent B, Morris GE (1996) Colloidal copolymer microgels of N-isopropylacrylamide and acrylic acid: pH, ionic strength and temperature effects. J Chem Soc Faraday Trans 92(24):5013–5016
Schmmidt S, Motschmann H, Hellweg T, von Klitzing R (2008) Thermoresponsive surfaces by spin-coating of PNIPAM-co-PAA microgels. A combined AFM and ellipsometry study, Polymer 49:749–756
Meng Z, Smith MH Lyon LA (2009) Temperature-programmed synthesis of micron-sized multi-responsive microgels, Colloid Polym Sci 287:277–285
Höfl S, Zitzler L, Hellweg T, Herminghaus S, Mugele F (2007) Volume phase transition of smart microgels in bulk solution and adsorbed at an interface: a combined AFM, dynamic light, and small angle neutron scattering study. Polymer 48:245–254
Hoare T, Pelton R (2004) Highly pH and temperature responsive microgels functionalized with vinylacetic acid. Macromolecules 37:2544–2550
Saunders BR, Crowther HM, Vincent B (1997) Poly((methyl methacrylate)-co-(methacrylic acid)) microgel particles: swelling control using pH, cononsolvency, and osmotic deswelling. Macromolecules 30:482–487
Zhou S, Chu B (1998) Synthesis and volume phase transition of poly(methacrylic-co-N-isopropylacrylamide) microgel particles in water. J Phys Chem B 102:1364–137
Duracher D, Elaissari A, Pichot C (1999) Characterization of cross-linked poly(N-isopropylmethacrylamide) microgel latexes. Colloid Polym Sci 277:905-913
Berndt I, Richtering W (2003) Doubly temperature sensitive core–shell microgels. Macromolecules 36:8780–8785
Uchiyama S, Matsumura Y, Prasanna de Silva A, Iwai K (2004) Modulation of the sensitive temperature range of fluorescent molecular thermometers based on thermoresponsive polymers. Anal Chem 76:1793–1798
Berndt I, Pedersen JS, Richtering W (2006) Temperature-sensitive core–shell microgel particles with dense shell. Angew Chem 118:1769–1773
Tanaka T, Sato E, Hirakawo Y, Hirotsu S, Peetermans J (1985) Critical kinetics of volume phase transition of gels. Phys Rev Lett 55:2455–2458
Shibayama M, Tanaka T, Han CC (1992) Small angle neutron scattering study on poly(N-isopropyl acrylamide) gels near their volume-phase transition. J Chem Phys 97(9)6829–6841
Shibayama M (1998) Spatial inhomogeneity and dynamic fluctuations of polymer gels. Macromol Chem Phys 199:1–30
Fernandez-Barbero A, Fernandez-Nieves A, Grillo I, Lopez-Cabarcos E (2002) Structural modifications in the swelling of inhomogeneous microgels by light and neutron scattering. Phys Rev E 66(5):051803/1–10
Flory PJ (1953) Principles or polymer chemistry. Cornell University Press, Ithaca
Flory PJ (1970) Thermodynamics of polymer solutions. Discuss. Faraday Soc. 49:7–29
Crassous JJ, Wittemann A, Siebenbürger M, Schrinner M, Drechsler M, Ballauff M (2008) Direct imaging of temperature-sensitive core–shell latexes by cryogenic transmission electron microscopy. Colloid Polym Sci 286:805–812
Cook JP, Riley DJ (2009) The effect of perchlorate ions on a pyridine-based microgel. Adv Colloid Interface Sci 147:67–73
Yi YD, Bae YC (1998) Volume-phase transition of submicron-sized N-isopropylacrylamide N-tert-butylacrylamide particles by photon correlation spectroscopy. J Appl Polym Sci 67:2087–2092
Debord JD, Lyon LA (2003) Synthesis and characterization of pH-responsive copolymer microgels with tunable volume phase transition temperatures. Langmuir 19:7662–7664
Shibayama M, Tanaka T, Han CC (1992) Small-angle neutron scattering study on weakly charged temperature sensitive polymer gels. J Chem Phys 97(9):6842–6854
Berne BJ, Pecora R (1976) Dynamic light scattering. Wiley, New York
Higgins JS, Benoit HC (1996) Polymers and neutron scattering, 2nd edn. Clarendon, Oxford
Chu B (1974) Laser light scattering. Academic, New York
Koppel DE (1972) Analysis of macromolecular polydispersity in intensity correlation spectroscopy: the method of cumulants. J Chem Phys 57(11):4814–4820
Bargeron CB (1974) Measurement of continuous distribution of spherical particles by intensity correlation spectroscopy: analysis by cumulants. J Chem Phys 61(5):2134–2138
Provencher SW (1982) A constrained regularization method for inverting data represented by linear algebraic or integral equations. Comput Phys Commun 27:213–217
Provencher SW (1982) Contin: a general purpose constrained regularization program for inverting noisy linear algebraic and integral equations. Comput Phys Commun 27:229–242
Flory PJ, Rehner J (1943) Statistical mechanics of cross-linked polymer networks. I. Rubberlike elasticity. J Chem Phys 11(11):512–520
Eichinger BE, Flory PJ (1968) Thermodynamics of polymer solutions. Trans Faraday Soc 64;2035–2052
Hirotsu S (1994) Static and time-dependent properties of polymer gels around the volume phase transition. Phase Transit 47:183–240
Hirotsu S, Hirokawa Y, Tanaka T (1987) Volume-phase transitions of ionized N-isopropylacrylamide gels. J Chem Phys 87(2):1392–1395
Geisler E, Horkay F, Hecht A-M (1993) Scattering from network polydispersity in polymer gels. Phys Rev Lett 71(4)645–648
de Gennes P-G (1979) Scaling concepts in polymer physics. Cornell University Press, Ithaca
Crowther HM, Saunders BR, Mears SJ, Cosgrove T, Vincent B, King SM, Yu G-E (1999) Poly(NIPAM) microgel particle de-swelling: a light scattering and small-angle neutron scattering study. Colloids Surf A Physicochem Eng Asp 152:327–333
Mears SJ, Deng Y, Cosgrove T, Pelton R (1997) Structure of sodium dodecyl sulfate bound to a poly(NIPAM) microgel particle. Langmuir 13:1901
Kratz K, Hellweg Th, Eimer W (2001) Structural changes in PNIPAM microgel particles as seen by SANS, DLS, and EM techniques. Polymer 42(15):6531–6539
Wignall GD, Bates FS (1987) Absolute calibration of small-angle neutron scattering data. J Appl Crystallogr 20:28–40
Russell TP, Lin JS, Spooner S, Wignall GD (1988) Intercalibration of small-angle X-ray and neutron scattering data. J Appl Crystallogr 21:629–638
Hellweg T, Dewhurst CD, Bruckner E, Kratz K, Eimer W (2000) Colloidal crystals made of poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) microgel particles. Colloid Polym Sci 278:972–978
Sierra-Martín B, Choi Y, Romero-Cano MS, Cosgrove T, Vincent B, Fernández-Barbero A (2005) Microscopic signature of a microgel volume phase transition. Macromolecules 38:10782–10787
Zhang Q-S, Zha L-S, Ma J-H, Liang B-R (2007) Synthesis and characterization of novel, temperature-sensitive microgels based on N-isopropylacrylamide and tert-butyl acrylate. J Appl Polym Sci 103:2962–2967
Wu J, Huang G, Hu Z (2003) Interparticle potential and the phase behavoir of temperature-sensitive microgel dispersions. Macromolecules 36:440–448
Wu J, Zhou B, Hu Z (2003) Phase behavior of thermally responsive microgel colloids. Phys Rev Lett 90(4):048304
Hino T, Prausnitz JM (1996) Swelling equilibria for heterogeneous polyacrylamide gels. J Appl Polym Sci 62:1635–1640
Senff H, Richtering W (2000) Influence of cross-link density on rheological properties of temperature-sensitive microgel suspensions. Colloid Polym Sci 278:830–840
Erman B, Flory PJ (1986) Critical phenomena and transitions in swollen polymer networks and in linear macromolecules. Macromolecules 19:2342–2353
Kratz K, Hellweg Th, Eimer W (1998) Effect of connectivity and charge density on the swelling and local structural properties of colloidal PNIPAM microgels. Ber Bunsenges Phys Chem 102:1603–1608
Kohlbrecher J (2008) SASfit: a program for fitting simple structural models to small angle scattering data. Paul Scherrer Institut, Laboratory for Neutron Scattering, Villigen
Wong P (1985) Scattering by inhomogeneous systems with rough internal surfaces: porous solids and random-field Ising systems. Phys Rev B 32(11):7417–7424
Acknowledgements
This work was financed by the DFG within the framework of the priority program SPP 1259 “Intelligente Hydrogele”. The JCNS outstation at the FRM II is acknowledged for providing SANS beamtime. We are grateful to Markus Drechsler for the help with the cryo-TEM.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Hertle, Y., Zeiser, M., Hasenöhrl, C. et al. Responsive P(NIPAM-co-NtBAM) microgels: Flory–Rehner description of the swelling behaviour. Colloid Polym Sci 288, 1047–1059 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00396-010-2232-8
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00396-010-2232-8