In this work, we compare the properties of smart homopolymer microgels based on N-n-propylacrylamide (NNPAM), N-isopropylacrylamide (NIPAM) and N-isopropylmethacrylamide (NIPMAM) synthesized under identical conditions. The particles are studied with respect to size, morphology, and swelling behavior using scanning electron and scanning force microscopy. In addition, light scattering techniques ...

Abstract Electrospinning is a contemporary and effective technique for producing fine fibers with diameters as small nanometers by using an electric field. These have numerous industrial applications, including filtration, sensors, composite materials, membranes. This study provides overview of the electrospinning process discusses few applications polyvinyl alcohol based electrospun nanofibers...

We use droplet-based microfluidic techniques to produce monodisperse poly(Nisopropylacrylamide) gel particles in the size range of 10--1000 mm. Our techniques offer exquisite control over both outer dimensions and inner morphology of the particles. We demonstrate this control by fabricating conventional microgels, microgels with embedded materials and voids, and gel microcapsules with singleand...

In the present work, we investigate the potential of aqueous polymer microgels in membrane technology, especially for filtration applications. The poly(N-vinylcaprolactam)-based microgels exhibit thermoresponsive behavior and were employed to coat hollow-fiber membranes used for micro- and ultrafiltration. We discuss the preparation of microgel-modified membranes (by "inside-out" as well as "ou...

Using a one-component reduction formalism, we calculate the effective interactions and the counterion density profiles for microgels that feature a multilayered shell structure. We follow a strategy that involves second order perturbation theory and obtain analytical expressions for the effective interactions by modeling the layers of the particles as linear superpostion of homogeneously charge...

Poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAM) is a synthetic polymer that widely studied for its thermoresponsive character. However, recent works also reported evidence of low temperature (protein-like) dynamical transition around 225 K in concentrated PNIPAM suspensions, independently the architecture, i.e., both linear chains and microgels. In this work, we investigate water-polymer interactions by e...

Polystyrene (PS) microgel colloids have often been used successfully to model hard sphere behaviour even though the term "gel" invokes inevitably the notion of a more or less soft, deformable object. Here we systematically study the effect of reducing the cross-link density from 1 : 10 (1 cross-link per 10 monomers) to 1 : 100 on particle interactions and "softness". We report on the synthesis ...

Electrospinning of nanofibers with cyclodextrin (CD) is attractive because the produced fibers can potentially increase the efficiency of nanofibrous membranes by facilitating the complex formation with organic compounds and high surface area of the nanofibers. In this work, polyacrylonitrile (PAN) nanofibers functionalized with β– cyclodextrin (βCD) during an electrospinning process were used ...