Abstract
Abstract Fast-responsive deswelling of poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) gel after a freeze-dry (FD) treatment was investigated by means of SEM images and a kinetic method using a N-isopropylacrylamide (NIPAAm) monomer from the viewpoint of the mesoscopic structure comprising a partitioned polymer-network. It was deduced from SEM images that an elastic frame comprising a partitioned polymer-network is formed by a hydrophobic interaction between polymer chains in the FD-treated gel. Fast-deswelling of the FD-treated gel results from the elasticity of a partitioned polymer-network caused water to release. The kinetic parameters on deswelling of both the conventional gel and the FD-treated gel were determined in the presence of an NIPAAm monomer. This monomer in solution is considered to play two directly-opposed roles in making a skin on the surface of the conventional gel: One is for disturbing the formation of hydrogen bonding between amide groups in the polymer; the other is for accelerating the separation of hydrated water from isopropyl groups in the polymer. Cracking the surface of a conventional gel was investigated in connection with the monomer.
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