Dual-Temperature-Responsive Microgels from a Zwitterionic Functional Graft Copolymer with Superior Protein Repelling Property.

In this work, we developed a synthetic strategy to synthesize dual-temperature-responsive low surface fouling zwitterionic microgels. Statistical poly(-vinylcaprolactam--glycidyl methacrylate) copolymers were synthesized by RAFT polymerization and post-modified by thiol-epoxy click reaction with thiol end-group-modified poly(sulfobetaine) macro-RAFT (PSB-SH) to obtain poly(-vinylcaprolactam--glycidyl methacrylate)--poly(sulfobetaine) (PVCL--PGMA--PSB) graft copolymers. Synthesized graft copolymers were cross-linked by diamine cross-linker in water-in-oil (w/o) inverse mini-emulsion to obtain zwitterionic microgels.