Realization of environmentally-responsive, anisotropic hydrogel microspheres prepared at the oil/water interfaces

2015 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 26620177
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Polymer/Textile materials
• Research Institution: Shinshu University
• Principal Investigator: SUZUKI Daisuke 信州大学, 学術研究院繊維学系, 准教授 (90547019)
• Project Period (FY): 2014-04-01 – 2016-03-31
• Keywords: 高分子微粒子 / ゲル / 高分子コロイド / 刺激応答性

Outline of Final Research Achievements

We developed environmentally responsive anisotropic microgels whose physicochemical properties of both hemispheres are different each other. The micron-sized, reactive anisotropic microgels were modified by hetero aggregation method at an oil/water interface to clearly characterize their modified region. In order to clarify the behavior of the microgels at the interface, rod-like core/shell microgels were prepared, and the adsorption behavior at the interface was investigated. We revealed that the rotational Brownian motion of the microgels at the interface was suppressed in contrast to polystyrene particles without gel shell, which means that the microgels were strongly stabilized at the interface due to the presence of poly(N-isopropyl acrylamide) gel layer on the particle. This result indicates that the modification method we have proposed is useful for determining the modification region of the microgels in an exact manner. The significance of our modification method was clarified.

Free Research Field

高分子科学