Terpolymer smart gels: synthesis and characterizations

Two smart terpolymer gels, MS-1 and MS-2, were synthesized such that the same gel can respond to more than one external environmental condition, such as pH, temperature, solvent composition, electric field. So two terpolymers gels of vinyl monomers such as sodium acrylate, acrylamide and N-isopropyl acrylamide were synthesized by using ammonium persulfate (APS) as an initiator, N,N,N',N'-tetramethyl ethylene diamine (TMEDA) as an accelerator and methylene bisacrylamide as a cross-linker. These terpolymers were characterized by elemental and Fourier transform infrared analysis. The swelling behavior of these terpolymer smart gels was evaluated by changing the pH, temperature and solvent composition. The variation of the swelling behavior with time was evaluated in an aqueous medium at room temperature. The time taken for maximum swelling (t(m)) was about 20 min for the gel MS-2. However the tm value for the gel MS-1 is higher than that of MS-2. The swelling behavior remains almost unchanged over a temperature range of 22-50 degreesC for both the gels. The discontinuous volume transitions were observed at pH 7.6 and 8.2 for the two gels, MS-1 and MS-2, respectively. The gel MS-1 suddenly shrinks below and swells above pH 7.6. Correspondingly, the pH is 8.2 for the case of MS-2. Volume transitions in an acetone-water mixture were also observed for these gels. The swelling behaviors of these two smart gels are almost parallel above the 40% acetone concentration.