Abstract
A set of poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) p(NIPAM) microgels was successfully prepared through precipitation polymerization (PP) using acryloyl starch nanoparticles (ASNPs) as crosslinkers. Functionalized starch nanoparticles used in microgel preparation, with a degree of substitution (DS) of 0.78 (ASNP12) or 1.37 (ASNP24) were found to have different properties. Dynamic light scattering (DLS) revealed that microgels prepared with ASNP12 exhibit a higher swelling capacity compared to the microgels designed with ASNP24, which was also observed by atomic force microscopy (AFM), showing super soft microgels flattened into disk shape on the substrate. This may be related to softer and surface smoothed microgels. Turbidity analysis revealed a slight shift of the so-called volume phase transition temperature (VPTT) towards higher values for microgels synthesized with ASNP24, indicating its contribution as a hydrophilic comonomer. Considering their high swelling capacity, these bio-based crosslinked microgels are potential materials for adsorptive processes. They can also be considered as candidates for biomedical applications due to the presence of a biopolymer in their structure.
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