Abstract
ABSTRACTA thermo‐sensitive nanocapsule, containing the hydration layer, was synthesized through introducing N‐isopropylacrylamide into the system of styrene miniemulsion polymerization and hexadecane as liquid template. The properties and content of the water in the hydration layer were investigated by differential scanning calorimetry. With dynamic light scattering and transmission electron microscope, the effects of temperature and solvent on the particle size and morphologies were studied. The results showed that the increase of temperature and the ethanol–water mixed solvent could decrease the thickness of hydration layer and caused the polymer chain in the shell coil‐to‐globule transition, which switched on the pathway to loading and releasing substances in the nanocapsules. By using UV‐visible spectroscopy to monitor the tracer, the diffusion coefficients were determined and verified the switching process above. In addition, the ethanol–water molecule cluster can form a stable associative structure around ethanol mole fraction of 0.4, and destroyed the hydration of the hydrophilic group. The solvent interactions were proved to be the main driving force for the coil‐to‐globule transition of poly(N‐isopropylacrylamide). Moreover, an appropriate latex particle size should exclude the hydration layer but stable dispersed in the solvent was suggested. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2014, 131, 40589.
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