Thermoreversible hydrogel. V. Synthesis and swelling behavior of theN-isopropylacrylamide-co-trimethyl methacryloyloxyethyl ammonium iodide copolymeric hydrogels

Abstract

A series of N-isopropylacrylamide/trimethyl methacryloyloxyethyl ammonium iodide (NIPAAm/TMMAI) copolymeric gels are prepared from the various molar ratios of NIPAAm, cationic monomer TMMAI, and N,N′-methylene bisacrylamide (NMBA) in this article. The influences of the amount of the cationic monomer in the copolymeric gels on the swelling behavior in water, various saline solutions, and various temperatures are investigated. Results show that the swelling ratios of copolymeric gels are significantly larger than those of pure homopolymer NIPAAm gel, and the more the TMMAI content, the higher the gel transition temperature. In the saline solution, results show that the swelling ratio of pure NIPAAm gel has not significantly changed with an increase of the salt concentration until the salt concentration is larger than 0.1M. The swelling ratios for the copolymeric gels NIPAAm/TMMAI decrease with increasing salt concentration. In various saline solutions, results show that the anionic effects are greater than cationic effects in the presence of common anion, different cations and common cation, and different anions for these hydrogels. Finally, we also tested the reversibility of the NIPAAm/TMMAI copolymeric gels. The deswelling and reswelling kinetics are dependent on the temperature, which is below or above the gel transition temperature. The gel with little TMMAI content has a good reversibility. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 69: 1793–1803, 1998