Volume phase transition behavior ofN-isopropyl acrylamide-N-cyanomethyl acrylamide copolymer gel particles: The effect of crosslinking density

We prepared submicron-sized N-isopropyl acrylamide (NIPA)–N-cyanomethyl acrylamide (NCMA) copolymer gel particles by precipitation polymerization. Volume phase transition behaviors of gel particles with various compositions and crosslinking density were observed by using photon correlation spectroscopy (PCS). The experimental data showed that both the volume transition temperature and the swelling ratio of copolymer gel particles were varied with the mole ratio of NCMA and NIPA. We compared the swelling behaviors of given systems with the thermodynamic model based on the extended Flory–Huggins theory.