Hello everyone,
I am currently creating a hydrogel for research purposes. I have chosen PVA and Chitosan in a 70% PVA and 30% Chitosan mixture due to good crosslinking capacity and antibacterial property. I have currently physically crosslinked this PVA-Chitosan mixture by freeze-thaw cycles but this does not have the permanent and irreversible hydrogel properties that I require. So, as for chemical crosslinking, I am considering gamma radiation as harsh organic solvents cannot be used due to this hydrogel being designed to be used on skin. However gamma radiation equipment is difficult to find, so I was wondering how effective UV crosslinking is? Also, if someone could give me advice as to how to obtain gamma radiation equipment.
Sincerely,
Ricky
Hello Ricky Dua. If you want to chemically crosslink (irreversible crosslinking) I recommend you to use maleic anhydride as the crosslinking agent followed by UV irradiation. First you have to graft the maleic into the chitosan, then you can precipitate the chitosan-graft-maleic (CgM). After that, the precipitated CgM can be used for further reaction with PVA using Irgacure 2959 (Cytocompatible UV initiator) as the UV initiator followed by UV iradiation. Or you can use this method: Article Photocrosslinked Maleilated Chitosan/Methacrylated Poly (vin...
For further read on preparation of CgM, you can read these papers:
10.1080/10236660500479478
10.1088/1757-899x/599/1/012029
10.1016/j.ijbiomac.2018.10.107
10.1016/j.carbpol.2016.07.060
For chemical crosslinking Maleic Anhydride will be better option. We usually use GA (25% solution) for crosslinking of PVA. you can read my article if it can help you for your research. As far I know, GA affects the bio-compatibility of PVA and Chitosan, but you can optimize the percentage of GA used.
Article Stabilized Nanofibers of Polyvinyl Alcohol (PVA) Crosslinked...
Ricky Dua
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