Journal
POLYMER JOURNAL
Volume 48, Issue 3, Pages 273-279Publisher
NATURE PUBLISHING GROUP
DOI: 10.1038/pj.2015.103
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Funding
- Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan [26620177, 26102517]
- Japan Society for the Promotion of Science for young Scientists
- Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research [26102517, 13J10547, 26620177, 26620164, 15H05495] Funding Source: KAKEN
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We developed a simple and versatile method for the visualization of swollen microgels using standard scanning electron microscopy (SEM) that does not require the conventional sample pretreatment steps of sputtering. Specifically, microgels were swollen using ionic liquids (ILs), which remained nonvolatile even under high vacuum conditions. Two types of widely studied stimuli-responsive microgels and their hybrids with Au nanoparticles were visualized via SEM to demonstrate the versatility of the method. In particular, we observed the dispersion of embedded Au nanoparticles within the microgels because of the swelling caused by the ILs, confirming that the approach is versatile and useful for the evaluation of nanocomposite materials, such as hybrid microgels.
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