Hairy particles prepared by living radical graft-polymerization

Novel particles having designed hairs were prepared by living radical graft-polymerization on core particles. The living radical species used in this study was a kind of photo-iniferter, N, N-diethyl-thiocarbamate. Main component of hair was poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAM) which was a representative thermo-sensitive polymer. The polymerization was carried out by UV irradiation at room temperature that was lower than the transition temperature of PNIPAM. Incorporation of a small amount of acrylic acid into the hair caused significant change in the properties of hairy particles. The mode of comonomer charge also enabled to design the hair structure on the particles.