Hexane

All materials for microgel synthesis were acquired from Sigma-Aldrich (Munich, Germany) unless stated otherwise. N-isopropylacrylamide (NIPAM—monomer,), N,N’- methylenebisacrylamide (BIS—crosslinking agent), ammonium persulfate (APS—initiator) were used as received. The organic solutions 1-octanol, 1-buthanol, decane, and tetradecane were purchased from Acros organics (Geel, Belgium). Tetrahydrofuran and acetone were received from PanReac AppliChem (Darmstadt, Germany). Chloroform, dioxane, 2-propanol, t-butanol, ethanol, hexane, dimethyl sulfoxide, acetonitrile, and cyclohexane were received from Chimmed (Moscow, Russia). Mineral oil was purchased from VWR (Darmstadt, Germany). The fat-soluble dye Sudan III (analytical standard) was obtained from Sigma-Aldrich (Munich, Germany). Water was purified using a Millipore Milli-Q system.

CA monohydrate (≥99.0%), polyethylene glycol dodecyl ether (Brij L4), tetraethyl orthosilicate (TEOS) (≥98.0%), ammonia solution 28–30% (≥99.0%), N¹-(3-Trimethoxysilylpropyl) diethylenetriamine (DETAS), quinine hemisulfate salt monohydrate, and ethanol absolute (≥99.8%) were purchased from Sigma-Aldrich (Hoeilaart, Belgium). Hexane (≥99.0%) was purchased from Chimmed (Russia). Carboxyethylsilanetriol sodium salt (CEST) 25% in water was purchased from ABCR (Germany). The used water for the experiments was double-distilled.
Stainless steel autoclaves, ultrasonic bath, centrifuge, and dialysis bags (MWCO = 1000 Da) were used for the synthesis and purification of composite nanoparticles.