| Abstract: | We prepared submicron Poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) gel particles. Their swelling behavior was investigated by a photon correlation spectroscopy (PCS) technique. The swelling behavior of submicron gel particles showed a continuous volume phase transition for various temperatures. We combined the extended Flory-Huggins model for mixing solvent and network with a modified Flory-Rehner theory for the elastic contribution. The proposed model agreed very well with swelling behaviors of both submicron gel particles and bulk gels. A continuous volume phase transition behavior of submicron gel particles was predicted successfully by the proposed model. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 69: 109–114, 1998 |
