Abstract
In this study, several superabsorbent hybrid hydrogel compositions prepared from xanthan gum (XG)/sodium carboxymethylcellulose (CMC)/graphene oxide (GO) were synthesized by e-beam radiation crosslinking. We studied and evaluated the effects of GO content from the chemical structure of the hydrogels according to: sol-gel analysis, swelling degree, diffusion of water, ATR-FTIR spectroscopy, network structure, and dynamic mechanical analysis. The gel fraction and swelling properties of the prepared hydrogels depended on the polymer compositions and the absorbed dose. The hybrid XGCMCGO hydrogels showed superabsorbent capacity and reached equilibrium in less than 6 h. In particular, the XGCMCGO (70:30) hydrogel reached the highest swelling degree of about 6000%, at an irradiation dose of 15 kGy. The magnitude of the elastic (G′) and viscous (G″) moduli were strongly dependent on the absorbed dose. When the degree of crosslinking was higher, the G′ parameter was found to exceed 1000 Pa. In the case of the XGCMCGO (80:20) hydrogel compositions, the Mc and ξ parameters decreased with the absorbed dose, while crosslinking density increased, which demonstrated that we obtained a superabsorbent hydrogel with a permanent structure.
Highlights
In the specialized scientific literature, there are reports on a series of composite hydrogels that have various characteristic properties and can have many applications: delivering or controlled releasing of drugs [1,2,3], adsorbents for water purification [4,5,6], adsorbents of dyestuffs in various fields [7], and energy-storage devices [8,9]
It was observed that the highest percentage of the gel fraction (GF) was obtained at the lowest absorbed dose: 78% for XGCMCGO (50:50) and 73% for XGCMCGO (80:20); while for XGCMCGO (70:30), at the lowest dose, it obtained the lowest percentage of the GF, namely 60%
The exception to this rule was the hydrogel with equal concentrations of polymers (XGCMCGO (50:50)), for which the determination of the GF was no longer possible at doses above 7.5 kGy, due to the advanced degradation of the samples after irradiation
Summary
In the specialized scientific literature, there are reports on a series of composite hydrogels that have various characteristic properties and can have many applications: delivering or controlled releasing of drugs [1,2,3], adsorbents for water purification [4,5,6], adsorbents of dyestuffs in various fields [7], and energy-storage devices [8,9]. By varying the absorbed dose, the degree of crosslinking, on which the swelling degree strongly depends, can be controlled Since it has many hydrophilic groups on its surface, GO is an excellent material that can be used in mixtures with several polymers in order to obtain new hydrogels with superabsorbent properties [12,13,14]. Natural polymers such as CMC and XG are more susceptible to degradation when they are irradiated in aqueous solutions due to the indirect effect of water.
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