Microgel can change its size under external stimuli, manifesting itself an important building block of intelligent materials. Because light stimulus enables remote control and rapid shifting, photo-responsive materials have drawn great attention of scientists. Introducing photo-responsiveness into microgel has greatly broadened the potential of applications of microgel. This review summarizes recent research progress on light-responsive microgel. Four types of light-responsive microgel are elaborated, including photo-isomerization, photo-thermal, photo-(de)crosslinking, and photo-acidifying. Also, a wide range of applications of light-responsive microgel are reviewed, including light-tuning, drug controlled releasing, information displaying and self-healing hydrogel. At last, a brief outlook on the future development of this field is presented.
Contents
1 Introduction
2 Molecular design of photo-responsive microgel
2.1 Photo-isomerization microgel