Premium
Microwave‐Assisted Hydrogel Synthesis: A New Method for Crosslinking Polymers in Aqueous Solutions
Author(s) -
Cook Joseph P.,
Goodall Glenn W.,
Khutoryanskaya Olga V.,
Khutoryanskiy Vitaliy V.
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
macromolecular rapid communications
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.348
H-Index - 154
eISSN - 1521-3927
pISSN - 1022-1336
DOI - 10.1002/marc.201100742
Subject(s) - self healing hydrogels , vinyl alcohol , monomer , aqueous solution , polymer , maleic anhydride , polymer chemistry , materials science , acrylic acid , swelling , yield (engineering) , chemical engineering , chemistry , organic chemistry , copolymer , composite material , engineering
Abstract It has been found that hydrogels may be formed by microwave irradiation of aqueous solutions containing appropriate combinations of polymers. This new method of hydrogel synthesis yields sterile hydrogels without the use of monomers, eliminating the need for the removal of unreacted species from the final product. Results for two particularly successful combinations, poly(vinyl alcohol) with either poly(acrylic acid) or poly(methylvinylether‐alt‐maleic anhydride), are presented. Irradiation using temperatures of 100–150 °C was found to yield hydrogels with large equilibrium swelling degrees of 500–1000 g g −1 . Material leached from both types of hydrogel shows little cytotoxicity towards HT29 cells.