Anomalous diffusion in thermoresponsive polymer-clay composite hydrogels probed by wide-field fluorescence microscopy.

Thermoresponsive materials exhibit an enormous potential for tissue engineering, separation systems, and drug delivery. We investigated the diffusion of laponite clay nanoparticles, which serve as physical cross-linkers to achieve improved material properties in poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAM)-clay composite hydrogels close to the gel point. The networks are formed through physical interactions between PNIPAM chains and clay nanoparticles after these two components are mixed.

Gelation mechanism of poly(N-isopropylacrylamide)-clay nanocomposite hydrogels synthesized by photopolymerization.

The gelation process of poly-(N-isopropylacrylamide)-clay nanocomposite hydrogels (PNIPAAm-clay NC gels) was investigated by dynamic and static light scattering (DLS and SLS), as well as by fluorescence correlation spectroscopy (FCS). The photopolymerization method chosen for the radical polymerizing system ensured that, when the irradiation is removed, the reaction stopped immediately. Experiments showed that shortly before the gelation threshold is reached, no changes in the DLS autocorrelation functions appear, while the monomer conversion can be observed by 1H NMR spectroscopy.