Abstract
Hemicelluloses are widely used to prepare gel materials because of their renewability, biodegradability, and biocompatibility. Here, molecular chain extension of hemicelluloses was obtained in a two-step process. Composite hydrogels were prepared via free radical graft copolymerization of crosslinked quaternized hemicelluloses (CQH) and acrylic acid (AA) in the presence of crosslinking agent N,N’-methylenebisacrylamide (MBA). This chain extension strategy significantly improved the mechanical performance of the resulting hydrogels. The crosslinking density, compression modulus, and swelling capacities of hydrogels were tuned by changing the AA/CQH and MBA/CQH contents. Moreover, the biocompatibility test suggests that the hemicelluloses-based hydrogels exhibited no toxicity to cells and allowed cell growth. Taken together, these properties demonstrated that the composite hydrogels have potential applications in the fields of water absorbents, cell culture, and other functional biomaterials.
Highlights
The composite hydrogels were prepared between crosslinked quaternized hemicelluloses (CQH) and acrylic acid (AA) by free radical graft copolymerization in the presence of crosslinking agent N,N’-methylenebisacrylamide (MBA) and a redox initiator system of ammonium persulfate (APS) and N,N,N’,N’tetramethylethylenediamine (TEMED)
Free radical graft copolymerization was used to generate a series of hemicelluloses-based composite hydrogels with different weight ratios of AA/CQH and MBA/CQH
Composite hydrogels were prepared by crosslinking AA monomers in the presence of the extended molecular chains of hemicelluloses
Summary
This scheme should be a practicable approach to improve the mechanical properties of hemicelluloses-based hydrogels. Acrylic acid is an important monomer, and is widely used to prepare functional hydrogels. The incorporation of AA in the hydrogel network is generally used for superabsorbent materials and to promote the removal of heavy metal ions or dyes[35,36]. We describe a strategy for the formation of hemicelluloses-based hydrogels. The extended molecular chains of hemicelluloses were considered as the backbone, and the hydrogel network was formed by crosslinking AA monomers based on this backbone. The properties of the composite hydrogels were investigated
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