Effects of hectorite content on the temperature-sensitivity of PNIPAM microgels

A new method, adopting inorganic clay (synthetic hectorite) as a physical cross-linker, was used to prepare poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAM) microgels via surfactant-free emulsion polymerization. The effect of hectorite content on the temperature-sensitivity of PNIPAM microgels was investigated by means of DLS, UV/Vis and DSC. It was found that, in the absence of surfactant, with increasing hectorite content, the particle size tends to decrease to 300 nm at room temperature, while increases as weight ratio (WR) of hectorite and N-isopropylacrylamide (NIPAM) exceeds 21%. Furthermore, with increasing WR from 7% to 21%, the volume phase transition temperature of PNIPAM microgels has little shift, while decreases slightly when WR increases up to 28%.