While reading a paper I came across a method to prepare a hydrogel. It mentioned that the fully hydrated suspension was incubated in a sealed flask at 95 °C for 8 h. Is it equivalent to heating in a sealed flask?
Hydrogels may be prepared without necessarily subjecting them to incubation. As far as I know, hydrogels based on poly(acrylic acid) & polyacrylamide are made without incubation. I cannot tell about other cases.
However, please read the attached file (it is less than 17 pages if we exclude the references) and I hope that it is advantageous for your research.
As Dr. Matar said and referenced, there are many ways to obtain a hydrogel, not all of them involving changes in solution temperature (positive or negative, with respect to room temperature). The hydrogels synthesized in this manner are dubbed physical cross-linked hydrogels, because the kind of bonds responsible for their swellable behavior are weak and reversible. Other methods rely upon ionizing radiation, chemical reaction between moieties present in the polymer matrix and chemical reagents and complexation reactions between metal cations and eletrically charged polymeric groups, all of them providing stronger, more durable and often irreversible bonds.
The method of choice depends on which kind of application the material is intended for. Biocompatible polymer based hydrogels cross-linked via dialdehydes, for instance, are not advised to be employed when in contact with living tissue, so other cross-linking methods should be preferred.
Regards.
Thanks for your replies. I should have been more specific here. Actually while preparing curdlan hydrogels(low set or high set) the hydrated suspension is incubated for 8 hours. So what i wanted to know is will there be any difference in the hydrogel formation if we heat it instead of incubating it?
Hi Mithra,
Even if one skips incubation, preparation of a curdlan hydrogel takes time. Have a look on the Ph.D thesis of P.D.Williams at the University of Maryland (2011) & you will see that the man applied lengthy times in such preparation.
Best Wishes.
http://drum.lib.umd.edu/bitstream/1903/12105/1/Williams_umd_0117E_12389.pdf
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