Long-Term Physical Aging Tracked by Advanced Thermal Analysis of Poly(N-Isopropylacrylamide): A Smart Polymer for Drug Delivery System

Poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPA), as a smart polymer, can be applied for drug delivery systems. This amorphous polymer can be exposed on a structural recovery process during the storage and transport of medicaments. For the physical aging times up to one year, the structural recovery for PNIPA was studied by advanced thermal analysis. The structural recovery process occurred during the storage of amorphous PNIPA below glass transition and could be monitored by the differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). The enthalpy relaxation (recovery) was observed as overshoot in change heat capacity at the glass transition region in the DSC during heating scan. The physical aging of PNIPA was studied isothermally at 400.15 K and also in the non-isothermal conditions. For the first time, the structural recovery process was analyzed in reference to absolute heat capacity and integral enthalpy in frame of their equilibrium solid and liquid PNIPA.