Hydrogels based on alginate and N-isopropylacrylamide copolymers obtained by gamma irradiation: Thermosensitive swelling

M.M.S. LENCINA; N.A. ANDREUCETTI; M.A. VILLAR

Visegrád

Conferencia; 2nd International Conference on Bio-based Polymers and Composites; 2014

Laboratory of Plastics and Rubber Technology, Budapest University of Technology and Economics

Stimuli-sensitive hydrogels capable of change their swelling behavior in response to external stimuli, such as temperature or pH can be obtained from alginate and poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAAm). Alginate is a biopolymer with interesting properties such as biodegradability, biocompatibility and non-toxicity. PNIPAAm is a thermo-responsive polymer, which shows a coil-globule transformation at a lower critical solution temperature (LCST) around 32 °C. The use of γ-irradiation to induce the copolymerization of alginate and NIPAAm has the main advantage of working in the absence of extra agents for this kind of reaction.In this work the synthesis and characterization of alginate and PNIPAAm copolymers and hydrogel formation employing the copolymers is described. Also, hydrogels swelling behavior as a function of time and temperature has been studied.