The Swelling Equilibria of N-isopropylacrylamide Based Hydrogel in Aqueous Solution of Ethanol

摘要

N-isopropylacrylamide (NIPAAm) was used to synthesize NIPAAm homopolymer (nonionized) and NIPAAm-sodium methacrylate copolymer (ionized). The swelling equilibria for both gels were obtained in aqueous solution of ethanol with concentration ranging from 0 to 100% (by mass) at 25℃. The swollen gel in water shrank first with the addition of a small amount of ethanol and then reswelled with further addition of ethanol showing not only a discontinuous volume phase transition but also a typical reentrant phenomenon. A thermodynamic model based on the UNIQUAC with the "free-volume" contribution was applied to correlate and predict the swelling behavior of the poly(NIPAAM)-gels in ethanol-water mixture.