抄録
Polymer gels are made of crosslinked polymer networks and liquids. Poly N-isoproprylacrylamide(NIPA) gel is well-known to exhibit volume change in water in response to temperature. The NIPA gel is swollen below about 30℃, while it is deswollen above about 35℃ due to hydrophobic interaction. Under certain conditions, NIPA gel undergoes discrete volume change called volume phase transition. In terms of practicality of the gel, the NIPA gel is expected to be applied to drug delivery systems, artificial muscle, and so on. However, disadvantage of small volume change narrows the possible application. To broaden the application, synthesis of the gel exhibiting a large width of transition are indispensable. Authors introduced a new crosslinker trisacrylaminomethane (TRI) to achieve large width of transition in NIPA gel and discussed about the relation between crosslinkers and width of transition.
