Microgels, soft hydrogel particles, are of interest for applying in the development of new biological, chemical and technologies, including promoting bacterial adhesion inhibition and organic coatings. The objective of this research project is to analyze the interfacial properties between poly n-isopropylacrylamide (NIPAM) polymer microgel particles on flat surfaces. NIPAM microgel particles were synthesized with varying molar densities of n,n’methylenebisacrylamide (BIS) crosslinking agent, ranging between 0-2%, which caused the particles to display a range of stiffnesses. It is expected that the microgels containing 0% BIS should be the most deformable a flat surface, because they do not contain any additional concentration of BIS crosslinking agent. However the microgels containing 2% BIS are expected to be less deformable, by displaying a change in diameter and height, compared to the 0% BIS particles. This hypothesis was verified by measuring the diameter of the particles and height of the micron-sized particles, using light microscopy and atomic force microscopy (AFM).The experimental results confirmed that our hypothesis was correct such that the diameter of the 0% BIS microgels were larger and flatter than the 2% BIS microgel particles. From these results, the material properties of the microgel particles will help in future applications involving microgels.
