Hello. I've synthesized a copolymer hydrogel using acrylamide and gelatin, following the method described in many studies. During this process, I placed the monomer precursor solution between transparent films and initiated photopolymerization to form a film-like gel. Afterward, I removed the gel that was synthesized between the films and immersed it in a highly concentrated more than 2M salt solution (ZnCl2, Zn(CF3SO3)2) for ion exchange.
The issue I'm encountering is that when the synthesized hydrogel is immersed in a high concentration of salt, it is generally known to shrink due to osmotic pressure. However, my hydrogel exhibits a tendency to swell to more than 1.5 times its original size within an hour of immersion in the high-concentration salt solution. I am not sure why this is happening. Could you help me understand this unexpected phenomenon? Thanks.
Dear Joonhyub Lee, It is expected this tendency of swelling of polyelectrolyte hydrogel ( it has positively and negatively charged groups) at high ionic strength, as the gelatin is polyelectrolyte and all polyelectrolytes swell in salt solution. Regards, Berillo D.A.
Joonhyub Lee
The emergent properties of hydrogels may be due to the nuclear quantum effect. We study it on the example of aqueous solutions of surfactants and polyelectrolytes.
Preprint Nuclear quantum effect in aqueous micellar surfactant solutions
Thesis Mirgorod Yuri. QUANTUM NUCLEAR EFFECT IN AQUEOUS IONIC SURFA...
We initiated a discussion of this problem in the RG.
https://www.researchgate.net/post/Nuclear_quantum_effect_and_hydrogel
There is a work about his role in perovskite.
Thanks to everyone who responded. i solved this problem It is true that all polyelectrolytes become swelling, but in my case, the problem was that I put in an excessive amount of initiator because I did not consider the strong intensity of my UV lamp. Therefore, this problem occurred because the correct cross-linked network was not formed within a fast reaction time and had a short chain.
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