Authors: Z Rogic Miladinovic M Micic E Suljovrujic
Publish Date: 2016/03/22
Volume: 23, Issue: 4, Pages: 77-
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to attain oligopropylene glycol methacrylate OPGMA based hydrogels for different biomedical applications Since the volume phase transition temperature VPTT of polyoligopropylene glycol methacrylate POPGMA homopolymer was below room temperature it was necessary to tune the thermoresponsiveness and the VPTT to higher temperatures radical copolymerisation of OPGMA with more hydrophilic and/or pH responsive monomers was used to adjust these values A series of copolymeric hydrogels with different ratios of OPGMA 2hydroxyethyl methacrylate HEMA and itaconic acid IA was synthesised by gamma radiation The swelling properties were preliminarily investigated over a wide pH 22–90 and temperature 4–80 °C ranges Additional characterization of their structure and properties was conducted by Fourier transform infrared FTIR spectroscopy scanning electron microscopy SEM and differential scanning calorimetry DSC The presented results revealed temperature/pH dual responsive POPGMA/IA and POPGMA/HEMA/IA copolymers with large diversity in swelling properties as a result of the addition of OPGMA thermoresponsive units with a lower critical solution temperature LCST and IA pH responsive units It was demonstrated that VPTT can be significantly shifted to higher eg body temperatures at higher pH values pH ≥ 4 by increasing the IA content in the hydrogel composition Due to the possibility of making dual responsive copolymers in the manner explained in this paper OPGMA based hydrogels show potential for different biomedical applications
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