Marianne E. Harmon, D. Kuckling, C. Frank
2003
Citations
1
Influential Citations
85
Citations
Quality indicators
Journal
Macromolecules
Abstract
Photo-cross-linkable co- and terpolymers of N-isopropylacrylamide, 2-(dimethylmaleimido)-N-ethyl-acrylamide as the photosensitive component, and 3-acryloylaminopropionic acid or N-(2-(dimethylamino)ethyl)acrylamide as ionizable comonomers were prepared by free radical polymerization. Aqueous solutions of the linear un-cross-linked co- and terpolymers showed lower critical solution temperature behavior. The phase transition temperature, which was detected by differential scanning calorimetry, ranged from 23.1 to 39.2 °C depending on the pH of the solution and the composition of the polymer. Surface plasmon resonance and optical waveguide spectroscopy were used to obtain information about the swelling behavior of hydrogel films of the photo-cross-linked polymers, giving a measurement of film thickness and refractive index. The transition temperatures of the cross-linked polymer gels showed similar trends to those of the corresponding linear polymers in solution, and the gels were shown to be both temperatur...