Swelling of N-isopropyl acrylamide hydrogels in aqueous solutions of sodium chloride

Hydrogels are three-dimensional networks of hydrophilic polymer chains. Hydrogels can absorb/desorb water and hydrophilic solutes. This behavior is called swelling/shrinking, as it is accompanied by a volume change. The amounts of absorbed substances depend on the structure of the hydrogel and the composition of the coexisting liquid phase. This paper deals with experimental investigations of the swelling behavior of nonionic, chemically crosslinked, synthetic hydrogels of N-isopropyl acrylamide. The swelling equilibrium of some hydrogels in aqueous solutions of sodium chloride was investigated at 298 K. The experimental results are presented, discussed and correlated/predicted with a thermodynamic model which combines an expression for the Gibbs energy of a liquid phase with an expression for the Helmholtz energy of an elastic network.