Swelling kinetics of poly(aspartic acid)/poly(acrylic acid) semi‐interpenetrating polymer network hydrogels in urea solutions |
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Authors: | Ying Zhao Tianwei Tan Takatoshi Kinoshita |
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Affiliation: | 1. College of Life Science and Technology, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Beijing 100029, China;2. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Nagoya Institute of Technology, Nagoya 466‐8555, Japan |
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Abstract: | Semi‐interpenetrating network (semi‐IPN) hydrogels, composed of poly(aspartic acid) (PAsp) and poly(acrylic acid) (PAAc) with various ratios of PAsp to AAc, were prepared. In this work, swelling kinetics was investigated through calculating some parameters. The swelling ratios were measured at room temperature, using urea solutions as liquids to be absorbed. Compared to in deionized water, the hydrogels showed larger swelling ratios in urea solutions, which might be attributed to the chemical composition of urea. The equilibrium swelling ratio could achieve 600 g/g, and the equilibrium urea/water contents were more than 0.99. The diffusion exponents were between 0.5 and 0.7, suggesting that the solvent transport into the hydrogel was dominated by both diffusion and relaxation controlled systems. Therefore, the PAsp/PAAc semi‐IPN hydrogels were appropriate to carry substances in a urea/water environment for pharmaceutical, agricultural, environmental, and biomedical applications. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys 48: 666–671, 2010 |
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Keywords: | diffusion hydrogels poly(aspartic acid)/poly(acrylic acid) semi‐IPN swelling |
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