Abstract

CHITOSAN-GRAFT- VINYL BASED SUPERABSORBENT SMART HYDROGEL

Shyam R. Khairkar* and A. R. Raut

ABSTRACT

Chitosan is easily soluble in acidic solutions, crosslinking of chitosan to form a network is the only way to prepare chitosan hydrogels. Chitosan is a linear natural polysaccharide composed of a partially deacetylated Material of chitin. It is a basic polymer, having amine side groups. When anionic monomer such as acrylic acid monomer is grafted onto chitosan (in the presence of vinyl crosslinking agent monomer), an ampholytic hydrogel containing both cationic and anionic charges is prepared. So, by introducing anionic charges (– COO−) onto chitosan, a hydrogel with swelling ability at various pH is prepared. Highly swelling polymers are widely used in many fields of industrial, medical and analytical field of chemistry. This is due to their exceptional properties i.e., biocompatibility, biodegradables, renewability. Swelling polymers which is, superabsorbent hydrogels are hydrophilic three-dimensional networks that can absorb water in the amount from 10% up to thousands of times their dry weight. They are widely used in various applications such as drug delivery, hygienic, foods, cosmetics and agriculture. Graft copolymerization of vinyl monomers onto polysaccharides is an efficient rout to preparation of hydrogels. Because of the presence of certain functional groups along the polymer chains, hydrogels are often sensitive to the conditions of the surrounding environment, which are referred smart materials. For example, the water uptake of these materials may be sensitive to temperature, pH or ionic strength of the swelling solutions or even to the presence of a magnetic field or ultraviolet light.

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