PREPARATION AND PROPERTIES OF CLAY/POLY(N-ISOPROPYLACRYLAMIDE-co-ACRYL AMIDE)NANOCOMPOSITE HYDROGELS

Polymer hydrogels as a kind of soft materials have attracted increasing scientific and technological interest in past several decades. These materials have been applied widely in many fields [1], such as molecular filter [2,3], superabsorbent [4], and contact lenses [5] etc. However, synthetic polymeric hydrogels are seldom used as mechanical devices due to the lack of mechanical strength. Therefore, it is very imperative to improve their mechanical properties for wider use of polymeric hydrog…

PREPARATION AND PROPERTIES OF CLAY/POLY(N-ISOPROPYLACRYLAMIDE-co-ACRYL AMIDE)NANOCOMPOSITE HYDROGELS

A series of clay/poly(N-isopropylacrylamide-co-acrylamide)nanocomposite hydrogels(S-N-M gels)have been successfully prepared by in situ polymerization.The mechanical properties,swelling behavior of S-N-M gels and the transparency changes during polymerization of S-N-M gels have been systematically investigated.Compared to traditional hydrogels,S-N-M gels show excellent tensile properties and their swelling ratio increases with increasing acrylamide(AAm)content.The results of stress relaxation indicate that the stress loss decreases with increasing AAm content.It was surprisingly found that the transparency during all S-N-M gel synthesis changes abruptly,and the changes become more abrupt with increasing N-isopropylacrylamide content.It was concluded that the fact may be related to the hydrophilicity of copolymers.The weaker the hydrophilicity of copolymer,the more apparent the transparency change during S-N-M gels polymerization.We believe the relationship between hydrophilicity of copolymer and transparency changes will help to design novel nanocomposite hydrogels.