Rapid preparation of nanogels by photopolymerization at 532 nm

Abstract

The strategy of laser beam expansion was used to rapidly prepare nanogels by photopolymerization at 532 nm under low monomer concentration. According to the unique micellar morphology formed by amphiphilic polyethylene glycol diacrylate (PEGDA) in water, the monomer concentration was largely decreased to increase the distance of micellar aggregates. In this case, the photo-crosslinking could prefer to occur inside the micelles instead of crosslinking between the micellar aggregates. The variations of double bond content with reaction time in different beam expansion experiments were investigated. Finally, nanogels with uniform size could be rapidly prepared by regulating the reaction parameters, including monomer concentration, reaction time and power density.