Preparation of poly(divinylbenzene‐co‐N‐isopropylacrylamide) microspheres and their hydrogen‐bonding assembly behavior for raspberry‐like core‐corona polymer composite

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Abstract
Narrowdisperse poly(divinylbenzene‐co‐N‐isopropylacrylamide) (poly(DVB‐co‐NIPAM)) functional microspheres with the diameter in the range of 630 nm and 2.58 μm were prepared by distillation–precipitation polymerization in neat acetonitrile in the absence of any stabilizer. The effect of N‐isopropylacrylamide (NIPAM) ratio in the comonomer feed on the morphology of the resultant polymer particles was investigated in detail with divinylbenzene (DVB) as crosslinker and 2,2′‐azobisisobutyronitrile (AIBN) as initiator. The monodisperse poly(DVB‐co‐NIPAM) microspheres with NIPAM fraction of 20 wt % were selected for the preparation of raspberry‐like core‐corona polymer composite by the hydrogen‐bonding self‐assembly heterocoagulation with poly(ethyleneglycol dimethacrylate‐co‐acrylic acid) [poly(EGDMA‐co‐AA)] nanospheres. Both of the functional poly(DVB‐co‐NIPAM) microspheres and the core‐corona particles were characterized with scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Fourier transform infrared spectra (FTIR), and elemental analysis (EA). © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 104: 1350–1357, 2007