Synthesis of chitosan-based hydrogel by using photopolymerization technique

In this study, a novel route was developed to fabricate chitosan-based hydrogels by using photopolymerization technique. For this, firstly, glycidyl methacrylate (GMA) grafted onto the chitosan (CTS) backbone to produce chitosan derivative product having photopolymerizable groups  (CTS-g-GMA). Following, CTS-g-GMA and PEGDA subjected to photopolymerization to form chemically crosslinked hydrogel. The chemical structure of the obtained chitosan-based hydrogel was characterized by Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) analyses. Thermal behavior of hydrogel was determined by differential thermal analysis (DTA) and thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA). The thermal analyses showed that (CTS-g-GMA)-PEGDA had higher thermal stability than neat chitosan. Additionally, the water uptake capacities (swelling ratio) of hydrogels obtained by using different UV exposure time were determined gravimetrically. From the swelling test result, it was observed that exposure time has the effect on the water uptake capacity of hydrogels. In the light of the obtained results, chitosan-based hydrogel fabricated in this work could be considered as a potential for biomedical applications in future works.