Polymer Diffusion in Microgels with Upper Critical Solution Temperature as Studied by Incoherent Neutron Scattering

Abstract

Poly(acrylic-acrylamide) interpenetrated microgels present continuous phase transition from collapsed to swollen state around 42 °C. The upper critical solution temperature (UCST) of this polymeric system has prompted scientists to consider them candidates for its use in biological applications such as smart drug delivery devices since the swelling of the polymer matrix would permit the release of the drug previously entrapped within the microgels. In these systems the increment of the temperature can break inter-chain interactions, mainly hydrogen bonds, which reduce the elastic tension that stabilizes the microgel, favoring the polymer swelling. The microgel molecular dynamics at the UCST can be investigated using Incoherent Elastic (IENS) and Quasielastic Neutron Scattering (IQNS). From the analysis of the IQNS data we obtained that the diffusion coefficient of the polymer segments depends on the composition of the interpenetrated matrix. Thus, at room temperature, microgels with a polymer composition of 50% of each component present a diffusion coefficient 1·10−12 m2/s, while for the microgels formed by only one component the diffusion coefficient is 5.10−10 m2/s. This huge difference in the diffusion coefficient is conspicuously reduced when temperature increases, and we attribute this effect to the breaking of the inter-chain interaction. By means of FTIR-ATR analysis we have identified the groups that are involved in this phenomenon and we associate the breaking of the polyacrylic-polyacrylamide interactions with the swelling of the microgels.