Journal
POLYMER
Volume 54, Issue 6, Pages 1596-1602Publisher
ELSEVIER SCI LTD
DOI: 10.1016/j.polymer.2013.01.025
Keywords
Hydrogel; Poly(N-isopropylacrylamide); High mechanical strength
Categories
Funding
- National Science Foundation of China [50673013, 21074014]
- Beijing Municipal Commission of Education
- Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities
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Macromolecular microsphere composite poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (MMC-PNIPAAm) hydrogels with high mechanical strength and thermosensitive property are synthesized by using peroxidized macromolecular microspheres as polyfunctional initiating and crosslinking centers (PFICC). The synthesis conditions including pre-irradiation time, mixed solvent volume ratio, macromolecular microspheres content, reaction temperature, and monomer concentration, are optimized. Compression tests prove that the MMC-PNIPAAm hydrogels have high mechanical strengths. Hydrogels synthesized under the optimal conditions show compressive strengths higher than 10 MPa (at 95% strain) when the water content is about 60 wt.%. Deswelling tests and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) characterizations indicate that the MMC-PNIPAAm hydrogels have thermosensitive properties and their phase transition temperatures varied with the macromolecular microspheres content and reaction temperature. This work demonstrates a new kind of hydrogel with both high mechanical strength and thermosensitivity, which may find practical applications in biomedical and some other fields, especially in load-bearing situations. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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