Preparation of monodisperse, reactive hydrogel microspheres and their amphoterization

Monodisperse, reactive hydrogel microspheres were prepared by precipitation polymerization of p-nitrophenyl acrylate (NPA) with acrylamide, methacrylic acid, and methylenebisacrylamide in ethanol. The size of microspheres was controlled by the monomer ratio. Some fraction of reactive ester decomposed during the polymerization. The reactive hydrogel microspheres were converted to amphoteric ones by the reaction of NPA units with diamine. The isoelectric point of the amphoteric microspheres was around 4.0, but it was different from the pH at which the microspheres have the minimum size or the most shrunken state. This was attributed to the uneven distribution of induced amine groups.