Abstract
Amphiphilic terpolymer xerogels were prepared from N-isopropyl acrylamide, acrylic acid, and n-dodecyl acrylamide by both chemical redox initiated polymerization and γ-irradiation polymerization. The swelling equilibrium and swelling kinetics of amphiphilic xerogels prepared by these two polymerization methods were compared. Drug release behavior was also compared using 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) as a model drug, in order to elucidate the effect of polymerization method. γ-Irradiation polymerization provided amphiphilic terpolymer xerogels which exhibited slower swelling and drug release than chemical redox initiated polymerization.
