Rajabali Ebrahimi,
Volume 14, Issue 4 (6-2015)
Abstract
Department of Chemistry, Takestan Branch, Islamic Azad University, Takestan, Iran High frequency sound wave, ultrasound, is widely used to facilitate chemical reactions, especially in the polymerization reactions.This paper reports a study which synthesized acrylic hydrogel in the presence of ultrasonic irradiation (20-kHz, power 80%, pulse 8) in a water/glycerol medium. Acrylic acid (AA) and acrylamide (AAm) were used as acrylic monomers, and methylene bisacrylamide (MBA) as the crosslinker. The experiments were performed at a constant temperature of 37 °C. It was found that hydrogel formation is faster in the presence of ultrasound than in its absence. In addition, FT-IR, UV-Vis, and SEM spectroscopy showed that the hydrogel synthesized ultrasonically has a higher swelling capacity and a more uniform and porous structure. It was also discovered that hydrogel formation speeds up at higher quantities of glycerol. However, an increase in crosslinker concentration proved ineffective although it changed the appearance of the hydrogel. The method proposed in this research can be used in the synthesis of biomedical materials and in the development of drug delivery systems.
