The development of durable ter-copolymer hydrogels for solid surfaces repairing

Abstract

This study is mainly focused to elaborate the effect of cross-linkers i.e. sodium borate anhydrous, graphene oxide (GO), and N, N´-methylene bisacrylamide (MBA) on the adhesive performance of ter-copolymer (2-acrylamide-2-methyl-1-propane sulfonic acid-co-acrylamide-co-acrylic acid) hydrogels. The synthesis and surface morphology of hydrogels were confirmed by FTIR and SEM analysis respectively. Complete rheological tests were performed to check the adhesive behavior of hydrogels. The results revealed that the interaction between polymer chains plays important role in controlling the adhesive behavior of hydrogels. The same ter-copolymer hydrogel synthesized by using MBA showed enhanced elastic behavior and less adhesiveness compared to GO and borate-based hydrogels. The adhesion strength for hydrogels based on sodium borate anhydrous, GO, and MBA was 9.77 kPa, 2.8374 kPa, and 0.215 kPa respectively, indicating that adhesion follows the decreased order as HBR>HGO>HMB. The higher adhesive nature makes the borate and GO-based hydrogels good candidates, to be used for ceramics joining with metal, to avoid rubber crack propagation, while the less adhesive nature and strong elastic behavior make MBA-based hydrogel the best fit for tissue engineering. The adhesive performance of hydrogels was checked against solid surfaces of plastics, ceramics, glass, steel, and rubber. Both hydrogels (HBR and HGO) showed adherence to solid surfaces for a long time but more prominently towards ceramics.