To control the microstructure and the responsive rates of hydrogels, a temperature-induced
phase separation (TIPS) method applied to an organic-inorganic hybrid hydrogel. A copolymer
between thermosensitive poly(N-isopropylacrylamide), polyNIPA, and a vinyl monomer possessing
a trimethoxysilyl group was synthesized by radical reaction. Its cross-linking could be carried out by
hydrolytic polycondensation of trimethoxysilyl groups. During both reactions, the pre-gel solution
was separated into two phases by heating above a lower critical solution temperature of the
elongating polyNIPA copolymer. The responsive rates of the microporous gel could be controlled by
characteristic diffusion path length as the thickness of micropore wall, instead of the macroscopic
sample size. Therefore, the shrinking rates of the hydrogel could be successfully maximized by fixing
the phase-separated, microporous polymer network. Besides the interconnectivity of generated pores,
the thermally triggered shrinking kinetics was investigated.