High mechanical strength and rapid response rate of poly(N-isopropyl acrylamide) hydrogel crosslinked by starch-based nanospheres
Authors:
- 9 February 2010
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) in Soft Matter
- Vol. 6 (7) , 1467-1471
Abstract
A novel approach is presented for fabricating the thermo-responsive poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) hydrogels (TPHs) using starch-based nanospheres with derivable allyl groups as nanoscale crosslinkers. The obtained hydrogels possess an extremely high mechanical strength and a remarkably rapid shrinking time, which is much shorter than the time it will take for a conventional hydrogel (CH). Moreover, the effects of the crosslink density on the swelling, deswelling, and mechanical properties are also systematically studied. The results show that TPHs can sustain strength two hundred times more than the CH, and the characteristic time of deswelling is almost eight times shorter than that of CH. These excellent properties of the TPH gels can be attributed to their special microstructure and the even distribution of the starch-based nanospheres in the hydrogel network.Keywords
This publication has 34 references indexed in Scilit:
- Designing Starch‐Based Nanospheres to Make Hydrogels with High Mechanical StrengthMacromolecular Materials and Engineering, 2009
- Fabrication of Size-Controlled Starch-Based Nanospheres by NanoprecipitationACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, 2009
- Versatile Biocompatible Polymer Hydrogels: Scaffolds for Cell GrowthAngewandte Chemie International Edition, 2009
- Mechanical Reinforcement of a Supramolecular Hydrogel Comprising an Artificial Glyco‐Lipid through Supramolecular CopolymerizationMacromolecular Bioscience, 2008
- Thermo‐Responsive Hydrogels with Nanodomains: Rapid Shrinking of a Nanogel‐Crosslinking Hydrogel of Poly(N‐isopropyl acrylamide)Macromolecular Rapid Communications, 2008
- In situ polymerisation as a route towards transparent nanocomposites: Time-resolved light and neutron scattering experimentsColloids and Surfaces A: Physicochemical and Engineering Aspects, 2006
- Fabrication of Stimulus-Responsive Nanopatterned Polymer Brushes by Scanning-Probe LithographyNano Letters, 2004
- A New Route to Crystalline Hydrogels, Guided by a Phase DiagramAngewandte Chemie International Edition, 2003
- Double‐Network Hydrogels with Extremely High Mechanical StrengthAdvanced Materials, 2003
- Studies on Two Types of Built-in Inhomogeneities for Polymer Gels: Frozen Segmental Concentration Fluctuations and Spatial Distribution of Cross-LinksMacromolecules, 2003