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Updated: Jul 15, 2025

Magnetic and Thermal-sensitive PolyN-isopropylacrylamide-based Microgels for Magnetically Triggered Controlled Release
Published on: July 4, 2017
A spiropyran-based polymer with a stimulus response to water temperature and water content
1The Key Laboratory of Synthetic and Biotechnology Colloids, Ministry of Education, School of Chemical and Material Engineering, Jiangnan University, Wuxi 214122, China. wanghj@jiangnan.edu.cn.
Abstract:
Temperature-responsive spiropyran-functionalized polymers usually require a thermo-sensitive polymer. However, their temperature response range is limited by the lower critical solution temperature (LCST) of the thermo-sensitive polymer, which does not exceed 37 °C. In this work, a hydrophilic polymer (PHEA-SP) sheet was prepared by photo-initiated copolymerization of hydroxyethyl acrylate (HEA) and a spiropyran crosslinking agent (SP). In water, swelling and hydrogen bonding can increase the ring-opening isomerization probability of spiropyran at the PHEA-SP crosslinking point, thus amplifying the discoloration of spiropyran induced by temperature change. PHEA-SP is very responsive to water temperature in the range of 25-55 °C, due to the amplification of spiropyranoid discoloration described above. This method avoids the dependence of the temperature responsive spiropyran-functionalized polymer on a thermo-sensitive polymer and additional UV light, while increasing the upper limit of the water temperature response to 55 °C. In addition, PHEA-SP also shows responsivity to water content in ethanol solution from 0.3% to 100%.
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