Affiliations 

  • 1 Malaysian Nuclear Agency
  • 2 Universiti Putra Malaysia
MyJurnal

Abstract

Covalently cross-linked nanogels were prepared via irradiation of inverse micelles that had been preparedfrom radiation crosslinkable polymer, water, oil and surfactant. A mixture of polymer, water, heptane andsodium dioctyl sulfosuccinate (AOT) at certain compositions forms inverse micelles with the size rangingfrom 2 to 8 nm. The hydrophilic head of the surfactant facilitates encapsulation of water soluble polymer.If the entrapped polymer is radiation crosslinkable, it is expected that upon irradiation, polymerizationshall take place in such small and confined space, leading to formation of nano-sized polymeric gel.Meanwhile, emulsion at 2 nm size was chosen for gamma irradiation process. The formation of thenano-sized discreet gel using irradiation of inverse micelles technique was proven at a dose as low as 5kGy to obtain nanogel sized ~ 95 nm.