Synthesis of stimuli-responsive nanoparticles by solution polymerization

In this study, stimuli-responsive nanoparticles were prepared by solution polymerization. Two synthesis routes are proposed to synthesize the particles, the monomer route and the polymer/monomer route. For the monomer route, pH and thermal sensitive nanoparticles were synthesized from acrylic acid and N-isopropylacrylamide. For the polymer/monomer route, the pH sensitive nanoparticles were synthesized from chitosan and acrylic acid. The effect of reaction time, initiator concentration and agitation rate on the particle size and the size distribution were investigated. The stimuli-responsive nanoparticles could be directly blended with other polymers to prepare stimuli-responsive functional membranes.