The Synthesis and Characterization of Magnetic Chitosan-poly(N,Ndiethylacrylamide) Semi-IPN Films

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of Fe3O4 (magnetite) nanoparticles on the properties of magnetitecontaining chitosan-poly(N,N-diethylacrylamide) semi-interpenetrated network (CS-DE-M semi-IPN) films. For that purpose, nanosized (≤ 50 nm) magnetite-containing CS-DE-M semi-IPN films were prepared at four different initial N,N-diethylacrylamide concentrations. For the comparison purpose, CS-DE semi-IPN films without magnetite were also prepared under the same conditions with those of CS-DE-M films. The structural and thermal characterization of CS-DE-M and CS-DE films were performed by FTIR and DSC methods, respectively. The variation of swelling behavior of semi-IPN films with temperature was investigated in distilled water at four different temperatures between 10 – 40C with step of 10C. The equilibrium swelling values of CS-DE films were found to be three times higher than those of CS-DE-M films at all investigated temperatures. The swelling values of both polymer films decreased with the increase in DE concentration in CS solution. In addition, the lowest swelling was observed at 10C, and it increased with the increase in temperature in contrary to the expected results from a thermo-responsive polymer such as poly(N,N-diethylacrylamide). Normally, the swelling of a thermoresponsive polymer decreases with temperature, in the case of CS-DE and CS-DE-M films, however, the maximum poly(N,N-diethylacrylamide) content is between 27% and 57%, and it is too low to display a response to temperature as shrinking.