Acrylamide-based, thermoresponsive core–shell microgels with a linear phase transition region are used as improved carriers for catalytically active silver nanoparticles in the present study. In this context, we investigated the swelling behavior of the carriers and the stability of the silver nanoparticles inside the polymer network with photon correlation spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy, and by following the surface plasmon resonance of the nanoparticles. Depending on the cross-linker content of the microgel core, we observed very good stability of the nanoparticles inside the microgel network, with nearly no bleeding or aggregation of the nanoparticles over several weeks for core cross-linker contents of 5 and 10 mol %. The architecture of the hybrid particles in the swollen state was investigated with cryogenic transmission electron microscopy. The particles exhibit a core–shell structure, with the silver nanoparticles located mainly at the interface between the core and shell. This architecture was not used before and seems to grant advanced stability to the nanoparticles inside the network in combination with good switchability of the catalytic activity. This was measured by following the reduction of 4-nitrophenole, which is a well-studied model reaction. The obtained Arrhenius plots show that similar to previous works, the swelling of the core and shell can influence the catalytic activity of the silver nanoparticles. As mentioned before, the cross-linker content of the core seems to be a very important parameter for the switchability of the catalytic activity. A higher cross-linker content of the core seems to be connected to a stronger influence of the carrier swelling degree on the catalytic activity of the silver nanoparticles.

In the present study, we show how acrylamide-based microgels can be employed for the uptake and release of the drug β-aescin, a widely used natural product with a variety of pharmacological effects. We show how aescin is incorporated into the microgel particles. It has an important influence on the structure of the microgels, by reducing their natural network-density gradient in the swollen state. Moreover, temperature-dependent measurements reveal how the incorporation of aescin stabilizes the microgel particles, while the volume phase transition temperature (VPTT) is almost constant, which is very important for the intended drug release. Finally, it is shown that upon increase of the temperature above the VPTT the particles are able to release aescin from their network, encouraging the use of this particular drug delivery system for hypothermia treatments.

We investigated the influence of two anionic surfactants, namely, sodium dodecyl sulfate and sodium decyl sulfate, on acrylamide-based microgels consisting of N-n-propylacrylamide. In this context, the main focus was on the influence of surfactant addition on the size of the microgels. The surfactant was added to the reaction mixture before or during the polymerization at different points in time. Microgels were characterized via photon correlation spectroscopy and atomic force microscopy. All results were compared to those for other more common acrylamide-based microgels consisting of N-isopropylacrylamide and N-isopropylmethacrylamide. A significant difference between the three microgels and a strong dependence on the surface activity of the surfactant was found.

CBD is a promising candidate for treatment of many diseases and plays a major role in the growing trend to produce high-end drugs from natural, renewable resources. In the present work, we demonstrate a way to incorporate the anti-inflammatory drug CBD into smart microgel particles. The copolymer microgels that we chose as carrier systems exhibit a volume phase transition temperature of 39 ${}^{\circ }\mathrm{C}$, which is just above normal body temperature and makes them ideal candidates for hyperthermia treatment. While a simple loading route of CBD was not successful due to the enormous hydrophobicity of CBD, an alternative route was developed by immersing the microgels in ethanol. Despite the expected loss of thermoresponsive behaviour of the microgel matrix due to the solvent exchange, a temperature-dependent release of CBD was detected by the material, creating an interesting question of interactions between CBD and the microgel particles in ethanol. Furthermore, the method developed for loading of the microgel particles with CBD in ethanol was further improved by a subsequent transfer of the loaded particles into water, which proves to be an even more promising approach due to the successful temperature-dependent release of the drug above the collapse temperature of the microgels.

The present study focuses on the development of multiresponsive core-shell microgels and the manipulation of their swelling properties by copolymerization of different acrylamides—especially N-isopropylacrylamide (NIPAM), N-isopropylmethacrylamide (NIPMAM), and NNPAM—and acrylic acid. We use atomic force microscopy for the dry-state characterization of the microgel particles and photon correlation spectroscopy to investigate the swelling behavior at neutral (pH 7) and acidic (pH 4) conditions. A transition between an interpenetrating network structure for microgels with a pure poly-N,-n-propylacrylamide (PNNPAM) shell and a distinct core-shell morphology for microgels with a pure poly-N-isopropylmethacrylamide (PNIPMAM) shell is observable. The PNIPMAM molfraction of the shell also has an important influence on the particle rigidity because of the decreasing degree of interpenetration. Furthermore, the swelling behavior of the microgels is tunable by adjustment of the pH-value between a single-step volume phase transition and a linear swelling region at temperatures corresponding to the copolymer ratios of the shell. This flexibility makes the multiresponsive copolymer microgels interesting candidates for many applications, e.g., as membrane material with tunable permeability.