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Facile synthesis of thermo-responsive nanogels less than 50 nm in diameter via soap- and heat-free precipitation polymerization

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Abstract

Owing to their highly desirable properties that combine the properties of both hydrogels and nanomaterials, smart nanogels own great potentials as active nanocarriers in medical applications. In this paper, thermo-responsive nanogels with uniform sizes less than 50 nm in diameter were synthesized using potassium persulfate (KPS)/N,N,N′,N′-tetramethylethylenediamine (TMEDA) as a initiator system via a facile surfactant-free precipitation radical polymerization of N-isopropylacrylamide (NIPAM) at room temperature. Both transmission electron microscopy and dynamic light scattering were used to characterize the morphologies and diameters of the PNIPAM nanogels. All nanogels with spherical shape exhibited a narrow size distribution, and the finest nanogels were 43 nm in diameter on average. The very fine and highly pure nanogels would be more promising for drug delivery carriers than the bulk gels or microgels.

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Acknowledgements

This work is financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 31370568), Opening Project from CAS Key Laboratory of Engineering Plastics, Institute of Chemistry (China), Public Welfare Projects of Zhejiang Province (No. 2017C33113), and Scientific Research Foundation of Zhejiang Agriculture and Forestry University (No. 2013FR088).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Engineering, Zhejiang Agriculture and Forestry University, Lin’an, Hangzhou, 31130, People’s Republic of China

    Jinguang Wei, Huilong Yu, Hongzhi Liu, Chungui Du, Zhongxi Zhou, Qiuli Huang & Xiaoling Yao

  2. Zhejiang Provincial Collaborative Innovation Center for Bamboo Resources and High-efficiency Utilization, Hangzhou, 311300, People’s Republic of China

    Hongzhi Liu & Chungui Du

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  1. Jinguang Wei
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  2. Huilong Yu
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  3. Hongzhi Liu
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  4. Chungui Du
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  7. Xiaoling Yao
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Correspondence to Hongzhi Liu or Chungui Du.

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Wei, J., Yu, H., Liu, H. et al. Facile synthesis of thermo-responsive nanogels less than 50 nm in diameter via soap- and heat-free precipitation polymerization. J Mater Sci 53, 12056–12064 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-018-2495-x

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