Tunable swelling and rolling of microgel membranes

The tunable swelling and rolling of films assembled via layer-by-layer (LbL) methods from poly(N-isopropylacrylamide-co-acrylic acid) (pNIPAm-co-AAc) microgels and poly(ethylenimine) (PEI) have been systematically studied. Microgel/PEI films assembled at pH 7.4 display a high degree of in-plane swelling at low pH that dramatically increases the film area and drives self-delamination from the substrate to form a free-standing film. The degree of film swelling can be controlled by the size of microgels used in film fabrication. Taking advantage of this feature, self-rolled scrolls can be easily obtained from microgel/PEI films prepared from microgels of two different sizes. The rolling direction can be controlled by the assembly of different size microgels in different film strata, and the final shape of the scrolls can be controlled by scratching the desired film edges. The present work contributes to a deeper understanding of microgel/PEI film swelling properties and introduces a facile and novel method to prepare free-standing films and self-rolled scrolls.