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In the past several decades, hydrogels have been extensively studied for use in various biomedical and industrial applications. Successful use of hydrogels in these applications greatly relies on the ability to control mechanical and transport properties in a refined manner; however, current hydrogel design often encounters an undesirable inverse dependency between the degree of swelling and elastic modulus. To resolve this challenge, we hypothesized that an interpenetrating network (IPN) gel in which collagen fibers are chemically linked to a polymeric gel would allow us to control the elastic modulus over a broad range while reducing the change in the degree of swelling. We examined this hypothesis by preparing a collagen–polyacrylamide IPN gel via in situ assembly, so that two disparate networks are chemically linked via Michael reaction between collagen and polyacrylamide. The resulting IPN gel successfully demonstrated the independency between the degree of swelling and the elastic modulus. We suggest that the results of this study will be broadly useful in controlling hydrogel properties in an elaborate manner, in turn advancing various molecular and cell therapies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Group transfer polymerization and sequential addition of monomer and cross-linker were employed for the preparation of two new polymer structures, one of a polymer network and the other of a star polymer. The synthesis was completed in two steps, involving the synthesis of linear methyl methacrylate (MMA) arms of degree of polymerization of 20, followed by their cross-linking using a mixture of MMA monomer and ethylene glycol dimethacrylate (EGDMA) cross-linker. In this study, the volume of the cross-linking mixture was varied systematically. Furthermore, two mixture compositions were employed, involving MMA:EGDMA molar ratios of 1:1 and 3:1, leading to two series of polymeric materials. It was found that at a given cross-linking mixture composition, a larger volume of the cross-linking mixture favored the formation of polymer networks, whereas a smaller volume favored the formation of star polymers. The linear precursors, the star polymers and the extractables from the polymer networks were characterized by gel permeation chromatography in tetrahydrofuran (THF). The absolute weight-average molecular weight, the number of arms and the hydrodynamic radii of the star polymers, as determined using static and dynamic light scattering in THF, respectively, and their average radii as determined by atomic force microscopy, increased as the volume of the cross-linking mixture increased. The gravimetrically measured degrees of swelling in THF, the network sol fraction and the percentage of branched polymer in the sol fraction decreased as the volume of the cross-linking mixture increased. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Samples of poly[1-(3-sulfopropyl)-2-vinyl-pyridinium-betaine] (PSPV) have been synthesized to high conversion by free radical polymerization in aqueous solution of the zwitterionic monomer SPV with several concentrations of the crosslinker N,N′-methylene-bis-acrylamide (MBA). The densities of the resultant xerogels increased regularly with the content of MBA. Hydrogels obtained by swelling them in water and aqueous KSCN solution were examined by gravimetric and dimensional analysis. The water contents increased with decreasing content of MBA, the value of 92.7wt% at the lowest MBA content being higher than that for other zwitterionic hydrogels. Enhanced swelling occurred in 1M aq. KSCN at each MBA content, the total swelling being 98.1wt% at the lowest crosslinker content. Swelling increased with increasing temperature. An approximate procedure to formulating swelling equilibrium in term of the volume fraction of water in hydrogel, in conjunction with the van’t Hoff equation, yields a small positive value for the enthalpy of swelling. This is compared with values derived similarly for other hydrogels. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Linear homopolymers and randomly cross-linked homopolymer networks of 2-(dimethylamino)ethyl methacrylate of various molecular weights (MWs) were synthesized by group transfer polymerization in the bulk. 1-methoxy-1-(trimethylsiloxy)-2-methyl propene was used as the initiator, while tetrabutylammonium bibenzoate served as the catalyst. Ethylene glycol dimethacrylate was the cross-linker used for the network synthesis at an 8-fold molar excess with respect to the initiator. Gel permeation chromatography in tetrahydrofuran was used to characterize the linear homopolymers in terms of their MW and molecular weight distribution (MWD). Although the experimental MWs did not match the theoretical MWs, they were reasonably close to them. The MWDs were rather broad with polydispersity indices ranging between 1.5 and 1.9. The monomer conversion was relatively high, ranging from 97% to 74% for theoretical degrees of polymerization (DPs) from 5 to 500. No polymerization was observed for an attempted DP of 1000. Networks with molar ratios of monomer to initiator (nominal DPs) from 5 to 200 were prepared, while an attempted synthesis with a nominal DP of 500 did not yield a network. The networks were characterized in terms of their degree of swelling in water and the effects of DP, pH, salt concentration and temperature were investigated. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]