Effect of Monomer Sequence along Network Chains on Thermoresponsive Properties of Polymer Gels.

The effect of monomer sequence along the network chain on the swelling behavior of polymer gels should be clarified for the advanced control of swelling properties of gel materials. To this end, we systematically investigated the swelling properties of poly(acrylamide derivative) gels with the same composition but different monomer sequence by utilizing two gel synthetic methods: copolymerization giving a random network and co-crosslinking giving a blocky network. Both of the copolymerization and the co-crosslinking gels were prepared from the combination of two of the three following monomers: hydrophilic ,-dimethylacrylamide (DMAAm), hydrophobic --butylacrylamide (NBAAm), and thermoresponsive -isopropylacrylamide (NIPAAm) with various monomer compositions.