The Effect of Presence of Glycopolymer Grafts in Poly N-Isopropylacrylamide/Clay Nanocomposite Hydrogels

Two types of poly-N-isopropylacrylamide (p-NIPAM)/Cloisite 30B clay nanocomposite (NC) hydrogels were synthesized where the first one contained Cloisite 30B without modification. However, the second one contained Cloisite 30B with glycopolymer units attached onto its surface by surface-initiated atom transfer radical polymerization. The main purpose of this article was to study the effect of surface grafting of glycopolymer onto Cloisite 30B clay surface on the physical properties of the resulting NC hydrogels such as swelling ratio, deswelling behavior and thermal behavior. It was found that NC hydrogels containing glyco-units had better properties than the first one.