Poly(vinylalcohol) Ferrogels from Chemical Crosslinking and Freezing-Thawing

J.S. GONZALEZ; C.E. HOPPE; V.A. ALVAREZ

Madrid, España

Conferencia; 6th International ECNP Conference on Nanostructured Polymers and Nanocomposites; 2010

Nanofun-Poly Network of Excellence

<!-- /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0cm; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";} @page Section1 {size:612.0pt 792.0pt; margin:70.85pt 3.0cm 70.85pt 3.0cm; mso-header-margin:36.0pt; mso-footer-margin:36.0pt; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --> Ferrogels are a new class of polymeric materials whose properties can be controlled by the application of a magnetic field. The magneto-elastic properties of such gels give them the potential use as biomembranes, biomedical materials, biosensors, artificial muscles and mainly as matrices for drug delivery [1,2]. Stimuli-responsive controlled release drug from polymeric devices has been received great attention, as it provides advantages such as better delivery efficiency and site-specific therapy over the conventional routes of drug delivery. Polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) is an hydrophilic polymer from which biocompatible and biodegradable high strength hydrogels can be obtained [3]. This polymer can be crosslinking in several way such as chemically (by using a crosslinking agent, for example glutaraldheyde, GA) or physically (by freezing-thawing, F-T, cycles). The main objective of this work was to synthesize and characterize ferrogels for biomedical applications from PVA and magnetic nanoparticles (NPs) “in-situ” generated, trying to find the effect of crosslinking type and nanoparticles content on the thermal, magnetic and mechanical properties.