Particle-forming precipitation polymerization under unusual conditions

On Going to a New Era of Microgel Exhibiting Volume Phase Transition

“…There are some co-non-solvent systems for PNIPAM [ 18 , 19 ], and we chose a water–ethanol system. Thereby, it becomes possible to carry out the polymerization at a lower temperature while keeping an appreciable difference between the polymerization temperature and VPTT [ 20 ]. We confirmed that PNIPAM had a much lower VPTT in water/ethanol than 32 °C (VPTT in water) ( Figure 4 A,B).…”

“…Monodisperse and stable microgels were obtained not only in a flask but also in a silica tube with 2 μm diameter. A one-dimensional array of PNIPAM microgel was obtained from the latter non-stirring system in the tube [ 20 ].…”

Binary Solvent Colloids of Thermosensitive Poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) Microgel for Smart Windows

“…The LCST of PNIPAAm can be affected by the nature of substituent groups, chain architectures, and additives . Over the past two decades, considerable research has been performed to tune the LCST of PNIPAAm, such as copolymerizing with more hydrophilic (higher LCST) or more hydrophobic (lower LCST) comonomers, − controlling the chain architectures, and adding cosolvents . Among these methods, copolymerizing with other monomers usually induces some deterioration of the thermochromic performance of PNIPAAm, while controlling the chain architectures of PNIPAAm often makes the synthetic route more complicated and hard to manipulate. , Kim and Cho prepared thermosensitive hydrogels based on interpenetrating polymer networks of PNIPAAm and polyurethane and found that the light control ability of products decreased with increasing polyurethane content.…”