Thermo-responsive behavior and microenvironments of poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) microgel particles as studied by fluorescent label method

Poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAM) microgel particles labeled with a fluorescent monomer 4-N-(2-acryloyloxyethyl)-N-methylamino-7-N,N-dimethylaminosulfonyl-2,1,3-benzoxadiazole (DBD-AE) were prepared by emulsion polymerization under various crosslinker concentrations. The thermo-responsive behavior and the microenvironment of the microgel particles were studied in water by turbidimetric and fluorescence analyses. For the microgel particles prepared under the crosslinker concentration of 1 mM, the turbidity began to increase at ca. 32.5 degrees C, but the relative fluorescence intensity dramatically increased and the wavelength at the maximum fluorescence intensity (lambda(max)) was dramatically blue-shifted both at ca. 31.5 degrees C with increasing the temperature, suggesting the hydrophobicity around the DBD-AE unit was dramatically increased and the subsequent shrinking of the microgel particles occurred. As the crosslinker concentration increased from 0.5 to 20 mM, the transition temperature determined by turbidimetric analysis was constant upto 2 mM, rose between 2 and 10 mM, leveled off above 10 mM, and was ca. 34 degrees C at 20 mM. The temperature-induced microenvironmental change inside the microgel particles was also reduced at high crosslinker concentrations. The results obtained from the fluorescence of the DBD-AE unit and another fluorescent monomer unit 3-(2-propenyl)-9-(4-N,N-dimethylaminophenyl)phenanthrene (VDP) suggested that the heterogeneity inside the microgel particles prepared under the crosslinker concentration of 20 mM became high.