Salt- and pH-resisting collagen-based highly porous hydrogel

Abstract

A novel approach was developed to prepare a highly porous hydrogel with superior salt- and pH-resisting properties. According to this method, synthetic comonomers, i.e. acrylic acid (AA) and 2-acrylamido-2-methylpropanesulfonic acid (AMPS), were polymerized and crosslinked in the presence of hydrolyzed collagen as a natural backbone. The characterizations of hydrogels were investigated by swelling experiment, Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy, acid-base titration and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). Morphology of the samples was examined by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Experimental results indicate that the hydrogel has an absorbency of 360 and 73-82 g/g for distilled water and saline solutions, respectively. Water absorbency slightly changes from pH 3 to 8 and interestingly is more than of that in distilled water (∼ 500 g/g). The hydrogel thus prepared was showing a better salt- and pH-resistance compared to collagen-g-PAA hydrogel due to the introduction of the AMPS segment and therefore is a suitable candidate for horticulture and tissue engineering applications. © 2008 The Society of Polymer Science.