pH‐sensitive polymeric particles as smart carriers for rebar inhibitors delivery in alkaline condition

ABSTRACT The waste problem of the rebar inhibitors is very serious due to that it is a long time before they can exert their best effect in the concrete and they are kept losing all the time. However, there is still no effective solution to alleviate such situation. Meanwhile, drug delivery control technology based on environmental sensitive polymers has been successfully applied in biomedical fields. Thus, poly(acrylic acid)–acrylamide was synthesized as smart carrier for controlling rebar inhibitors delivery in concrete. Dipotassium hydrogen phosphate as model drug was encapsulated inside the polymeric particles via a self‐assembly process. The pH‐responsive activities of the polymeric particles were estimated by monitoring their swelling performances in solutions of different pH values and the drug delivery control characteristics were studied in simulated concrete pore solutions. The results indicate the polymeric particles deserve network structures with high porosity and exhibit excellent pH‐responsive activities, which can perform as perfect intelligent carriers whereas the releasing of the inhibitors follows the first‐order kinetic law. The work suggests a new application field of drug delivery control technology. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2018, 135, 45886.