We have proposed a method for reinforcing hydrogels with polymer foam based on the inspiration from the framework of plant cells. Hydrogels are formed by a hydrophilic polymer network and large amount of water, and the distinguished advantage of hydrogels is that most of solutes can diffuse in hydrogel. In our previous study using sodium acrylate hydrogels and polyurethane foam, the compression strength of the composite gel was ~2 MPa, much higher than that of sodium acrylate hydrogel alone; and the compression modulus was also much higher than those of each constituent material, hydrogel alone and foam alone.In the present study, we investigated the effect of the cell size of polymer foams on the mechanical properties of the composite gel. A piece of open-cell polyurethane foam was swelled in the aqueous solution of sodium acrylate as a monomer, in the presence of a radical initiator and N,N'-methylenebisacrylamide as a crosslinker, followed by gelation at 70�C. In the composite gel, polyurethane foam plays a role as a reinforcing material. Three types of polyurethane foam with different cell sizes were used. Though the compression strength and modulus of the gel slightly increased with decrease of the cell size, no significant change was observed. SEM observation of the composite gel revealed that dried poly(sodium acrylate) covered cell walls of the foam.

Mechanical properties of polymer foam-reinforced hydrogels: Effect of cell size of polymer foam

248th National Meeting (2014)

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