Ak. Lele et al., PREDICTIONS OF THERMOREVERSIBLE VOLUME PHASE-TRANSITIONS IN COPOLYMERGELS BY LATTICE-FLUID-HYDROGEN-BOND THEORY, The Journal of chemical physics, 106(11), 1997, pp. 4768-4772
Certain copolymeric hydrogels such as poly(N-ispropylacrylamide)/poly(
acrylic acid) show first-order volume phase transition on heating. By
using the lattice-fluid-hydrogen-bond theory we have shown earlier tha
t both hydrogen bonding interactions and hydrophobic interactions are
responsible for this behavior in homopolymer gels. In this paper we de
monstrate that the transition temperature of copolymer gels can be var
ied by changing the ratio of the two monomer concentrations in the cop
olymerization and also by slightly varying the hydrophobic nature of t
he gels. Thus it might be possible to ''tailor-make'' gels with desire
d transition temperatures. Such gels can find novel applications in bi
otechnology, soft robotics, separations, and sensors. (C) 1997 America
n Institute of Physics.