JOURNAL OF POLYMER RESEARCH, vol.14, no.1, pp.23-30, 2007 (SCI-Expanded)
In the present study, a series of ionic poly(N-t-butylacrylamide-co-acrylamide) [P(NTBA-co-AAm)] hydrogels were synthesized by free-radical crosslinking copolymerization of N-t-butylacrylamide (NTBA) and acrylamide (AAm) monomers in fixed amount, but changing amount of maleic acid (MA) comonomer in methanol using N,N-methylene-bis-acrylamide (BAAm) as the crosslinker, ammonium persulfate (APS) as the initiator, and N,N,N',N'-tetramethylethylenediamine (TEMED) as the activator. The swelling behavior of these hydrogels was analyzed in buffer solutions at various pHs. The prepared hydrogels also were investigated swelling-deswelling transition in water depending on the temperature. For the bovine serum albumin (BSA) adsorption, the effect of pH, temperature, initial protein concentration and adsorption rate were investigated. Maximum BSA adsorption was observed at pH 5.0 which is close to the isoelectric pH of BSA (pH 4.8). The highest adsorption rate was achieved in about 12 h. and also, maximum BSA adsorption was found at +5 degrees C.