Synthesis and Characterization of Temperature-Sensitive Poly(N-isopropylacryamide-co-acrylamide)/Montmorillonite Nanocomposite Hydrogels

Abstract

This paper reports a temperature-sensitive poly(N-isopropylacryamide-co-acrylamide)/montmorillonite (P(NIPAAm-co-Am)/MMT) nanocomposite hydrogel with enhanced mechanical properties and thermodynamic stability based on chitosan and nanoparticle MMT. With biodegradable N-maleyl chitosan crosslinker, the temperature-sensitive nanocomposite hydrogel was prepared by free radical polymerization in aqueous solution, using N-isopropylacryamide (NIPAAm), acrylamide (Am), and montmorillonite (MMT) as materials. The clay content varied from 0 to 7 wt% (based on the monomer). The temperature-sensitive behavior, mechanical property, thermodynamic stability, and enzymatic degradation of the nanocomposite hydrogels were investigated in detail.

Keywords:

• Enzymatic degradation
• mechanical property
• MMT
• NIPAAm
• thermodynamic stability

Acknowledgements

This research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 20876081), and the Science Foundation of Shandong Province (Y2006B10), Qingdao Science and Technology Program for basic research projects (09-1-3-33-JCH).