Objective
The scientific goal of the project will be to develop a methodology to create a system of stable thermo-responsive capsules with a simple structure and to determine the influence of polymer and charge density within the polymeric wall of the capsule on the permeability of the shell. The proposed research can by subdivided into several objectives. First synthesis of a family of mono-dispersive, hollow thermo-responsive microcapsules with well-defined shell structure, then determination of the physico-chemical factors affecting single capsule stability, shell permeability and stability of capsules suspensions. The primary innovation of the proposed research is the development of hollow capsules with walls of cross-linked poly-N-isopropylacrylamide-co-acrylic acid. Cross-linked macroscopic gels of PNIPAM exhibit a discontinuous volume transition due to a sudden change in solvent affinity as temperature is raised. Application of such gel in the capsule shell allows controlling shell permeability, however, the temperature dependent behaviour of the shell structures has to be examined in detail. The effect of the particle size and gel composition on the temperature dependence of the gel thickness will provide insight into the polymer physics of the cross-linked shell structures. The extent to which the structural changes of the gel phase are reversible is of primary importance to potential applications of microcapsules as carriers. The hollow microcapsules will also be an interesting model system for electrophoresis measurements. Hollow structures represent a new type of colloidal particle, in which the core is softer than the shell. The electro-kinetic properties of such particles have not yet been examined.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques.
- natural scienceschemical sciencespolymer sciences
- natural scienceschemical scienceselectrochemistryelectrophoresis
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Call for proposal
FP6-2005-MOBILITY-5
See other projects for this call
Funding Scheme
EIF - Marie Curie actions-Intra-European FellowshipsCoordinator
KRAKOW
Poland