ABSTRACT
Stimuli-responsive polymers, also called smart materials or intellectual materials, show an interesting property change behavior to external stimulus. These external stimuli, including pH [1,2], temperature [3-6], light [7,8], magnetic and electric field [9,10], and solvent/salt [11,12], result in a change of the polymers in conformation, solubility, and hydrophilic/hydrophobic balance. The property change of the poly mer to external environmental condition change can be linear or nonlinear. The nonlinear change attracts more scientific interest since a small stimulus change may result in a large response. Based on their response to different stimuli, stimuli-responsive polymers can be classified into several categories: thermo-responsive poly mer, pH-responsive poly mer, magnetic-responsive poly mer, and double-/multiresponsive poly mer due to their response to a combination of two or more stimuli. Furthermore, based on different structures of stimuli-responsive polymers, there are linear polymers, cross-linked polymers (hydrogel), micelles, core-shell particles, and poly mer-protein conjugates. Stimuli-responsive
CONTENTS
7.1 Introduction to Thermo-Responsive Polymer and Nanoparticles ..... 197 7.1.1 Thermo-Responsive Polymer ....................................................... 197 7.1.2 Phase Transition of Thermo-Responsive Polymer .................... 198 7.1.3 Thermo-Responsive PNIPAAm Nanoparticles ......................... 199
7.2 Thermo-Responsive Nanoparticle Synthesis and Characterization .........................................................................................200
