Synthesis and characterization of stereoregular poly(N-ethylacrylamide) hydrogel by using Y(OTf)₃ Lewis acid

Macroporous poly(N-ethylacrylamide) (PNEAM) hydrogels have been prepared in a methanol-water (1:1, v/v) mixture in the presence of 0, 0.05, 0.1, 0.15, and 0.2 M yttrium trifluoromethanesulfonate [Y(OTf)₃] Lewis acid (LA) concentrations. SEM micrographs show that the resulted hydrogels are highly porous. Swelling ratios of all the hydrogels in water decrease with the increase in the temperature, and the hydrogels show lower critical solution temperature (LCST) volume phase transition at around 75 °C. LCST of PNEAM homopolymers gradually increases with the increase in the isotacticity of the polymers. Moreover, the hydrogels show cononsolvency in different methanol-water mixtures at 50 °C. Deswelling rate of the hydrogels prepared in the presence of LA is higher than the gel prepared in the absence of LA and this rate increases with increase in the LA concentration. The reswelling rate of the hydrogels also follows the same order, that is reswelling rate also increases with the increase in the LA loading in the gels. All these results are explained on the basis of the formation of the highly porous hydrogels with a higher isotactic PNEAM chain segment in a methanol-water mixture in the presence of LA.