Journal of Materials Science and Engineering with Advanced TechnologyAuthor's: Hossein Hosseinzadeh
Pages: [21] - [32]
Received Date: July 12, 2011
Submitted by:
New semi-interpenetrating polymeric network (IPN) hydrogels based on chitosan and poly(acrylic acid), crosslinked with glutaraldehyde, were prepared by free radical polymerization method. IPN hydrogels were synthesized by simultaneous polymerization/crosslinking of acrylic acid monomer in the presence of chitosan and crosslinker. The structure and surface morphology of the IPN hydrogels were characterized by FTIR and SEM, respectively. Variation in composition of the IPN was achieved by varying the concentration of crosslinker. In addition, these semi-IPNs were characterized for their pH-sensitive behaviour by equilibrium swelling studies. From these preliminary evaluations, it is possible to conclude that these IPN materials have potential applications in the biomedical field. Finally, the swelling kinetics of the synthesized composite with various particle sizes was preliminarily investigated.
IPN hydrogels, chitosan, poly(acrylic acid), glutaraldehyde, swelling.
