Issue 4, 2016

Composite hydrogels of polyacrylamide and crosslinked pH-responsive micrometer-sized hollow particles

Abstract

Whilst hydrogels and hollow particles both continue to attract much attention in the literature there are few examples of hydrogel composites containing hollow particles. Here, we study composite polyacrylamide (PAAm) hydrogels containing micrometer-sized pH-responsive shell-crosslinked hollow particles (abbreviated as HPXL) based on poly(methylmethacrylate-co-methacrylic acid) functionalised with glycidyl methacrylate (GMA). The HPXL particles were prepared using our scaleable emulsion template method and inclusion of GMA was found to promote spherical hollow particle formation. The pendant vinyl groups from GMA enabled shell-crosslinked hollow particles to be prepared prior to formation of the PAAm/HPXL composite gels. The morphologies of the particles and composite gels were studied by optical microscopy, confocal laser scanning microscopy and scanning electron microscopy. Dynamic rheology measurements for the composite gels showed that the modulus variation with HPXL concentration could be described by a percolation model with a HPXL percolation threshold concentration of 4.4 wt% and a scaling exponent of 2.6. The composite gels were pH-responsive and largely maintained their mechanical properties over the pH range 4.0 to 8.0. Because the composite gels had tuneable mechanical properties (with modulus values up to 530 kPa) and were pH-responsive they are potential candidates for future wound healing or membrane applications.

Graphical abstract: Composite hydrogels of polyacrylamide and crosslinked pH-responsive micrometer-sized hollow particles

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
10 Oct 2015
Accepted
19 Nov 2015
First published
20 Nov 2015
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY license

Soft Matter, 2016,12, 1116-1126

Author version available

Composite hydrogels of polyacrylamide and crosslinked pH-responsive micrometer-sized hollow particles

K. Pafiti, Z. Cui, L. Carney, A. J. Freemont and B. R. Saunders, Soft Matter, 2016, 12, 1116 DOI: 10.1039/C5SM02521D

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