Swelling behaviors of sub-micron-sized copolymer gel particles: The effectof physical crosslinking

The swelling equilibria model of copolymer gel particles is proposed. It ac counts for physical crosslinking as a result of hydrogen bonding. The modif ied Flory-Erman model is used to describe the elastic contribution to swell ing. The model considers hydrogen bonding as a physical crosslinker. A free -energy-of-mixing term is represented using the extended Flory-Huggins theo ry. The interaction parameter chi in the model is a function of both compos ition and temperature. We then compare the proposed model with the swelling behaviors of copolymer gel particles. Our model offers fairly good agreeme nt with the experimental data for given systems. (C) 2001 John Wiley & Sons , Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys 39: 1928-1934, 2001.