Preparation and Swelling Dynamics Characterization of Poly(N, N-Diethylacrylamide-Co-Itaconic Acid) Intelligent Hydrogels

Abstract

Poly(N,N-diethylacrylamide) (PDEA) hydrogel is known for their intelligent reversible swelling/deswelling behavior in response to temperature changes across a lower critical solution temperature (LCST) at around 31oC. In this study, itaconic acid (IA) was co-polymerized with N, N-diethylacrylamide (DEA) monomer to improve the swelling behavior and the total absorbing water. These copolymer hydrogels were prepared by changing the initial DEA/IA molar ratio and total monomer concentration. The chemical structure of hydrogels was characterized by fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. In comparison with the PDEA hydrogel, the equilibrium swelling ratio (ESR) of the hydrogels increase with the increase of IA content in the feed and the swelling dynamics behaviors of the different composition ratios of the P(DEA-co-IA) hydrogels on the different temperatures was investigated in detail.