Porous, ionic, thermosensitive hydrogels were prepared from N-isopropylacrylamide, a cationic monomer [trimethyl (acrylamido propyl) ammonium iodide (TMAAI)], an anionic monomer [acrylic acid (AA)], a zwitterionic monomer [N',N'-dimethyl (acrylamido propyl) ammonium propane sulfonate], or a nonionic monomer [poly(ethylene glycol) methyl ether acrylate], and a pore-forming agent [poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG)] of different molecular weights. Some fundamental properties and dynamic swelling kinetic parameters and solute permeation for these porous gels were investigated. The results showed that the gel containing the cationic monomer TMAAI had a higher equilibrium swelling ratio. The diffusion coefficients showed that the swelling rates for the gels with the anionic monomer AA and PEG with a higher molecular weight (20,000) were faster. The results showed that the fast swelling-deswelling behavior for the porous structure gels was due to them being more available than the gels with long hydrophilic side chains. In addition, the interactive force between the solutes and gels and the solute permeation through the porous gels were investigated. (C) 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.