A NEW APPLICATION OF STATISTICAL MOMENT THEORY TO EVALUATE THE SWELLING BEHAVIOR OF THERMORESPONSIVE GELS

The loosely cross-linked poly(acryloyl-L-proline methyl ester) gel, wh ich is known as one of the typical thermo-responsive gels, shows a vol ume transition around approximately 14-degrees-C in pure water. This v olume transition is shifted to higher temperatures by treatment in aqu eous sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS). The analysis of the swelling-temper ature curve (frequency distribution) was performed according to a mome nt analysis, in which the area under the swelling-temperature curve (A UC), mean swelling transition temperature (MSTT) and variance of swell ing transition temperature (VSTT) were calculated. It is shown that th e apparent volume transition temperature can be estimated from MSTT an d that VSTT can be used to characterize the shape of the corresponding curves.