Glutaraldehyde-crosslinked poly(glycidol-block-ethylene oxide-block-glycidol) networks with temperature-responsive swelling behaviour

Abstract

In order to obtain temperature-responsive hydrogel networks, poly-(glycidol-block-ethylene oxide-block-glycidol) copolymers were chemically crosslinked by using glutaraldehyde and tetraethoxysilane in a sol-gel reaction. The crystallinity of copolymer networks prepared has been estimated by differential scanning calorimetry. Thermo-responsive properties were evaluated by measuring the equilibrium swelling degree for a series of copolymer hydrogels as a function of temperature.