CONICET | Buscador de Institutos y Recursos Humanos

Nowadays, multiple separation, absorption, contaminant removal and controlled drug release techniques are based on the use of macro porous polymer matrices. Given this situation, the idea of obtaining materials, especially hydrogels, that can adapt their removal, exchange or absorption capacities for specific substances, has become of great interest. This research attempts to confirm three main hypotheses: first, that the application of the click chemistry leads to the formation of hydrogels with secondary hydroxyl groups that may be functionalized. Second, that this functionalization could be done through simple esterification reactions. Finally, that the net structural characteristics and the functionalization will determine the absorption and liberation capacities of the material. With this hypothesis to be confirmed, the main objective of this research is to design poly(ethylene glycol) gels based on epoxy-thiol reactions, and their posterior functionalization; this will lead to the generation of materials for different specific applications.Different methods were used during this investigation. The thiol-epoxy reaction was followed by FTIR spectroscopy. Once the gel was formed, the swelling rates were calculated by quantifying the change in weight suffered by the material when it was immersed in different solvents. The gel was functionalized by the immersion of the material in different solutions with stearic acid, and a range of solvents that were chosen according to the previous analysis of the swelling rates. The obtained material was studied by DSC and TGA, with the aim of analyzing the effect of the stearic acid and the different solvents on the material properties. Measures of the contact angle with the goniometer and analysis of ATR-FTIR were also performed to determine whether the functionalization was effective. Even though several tests were run, the confirmation of a successful functionalization has not been achieved yet.