Macroporous hydrogels with tailored morphology and mechanical properties

In this work it is shown that hydroxyethylcellulose (HEC) can be employed for preparing macroporous polyacrylamide (PAAm) hydrogels with tailored morphology and mechanical properties. By changing the HEC content in the reaction mixture hydrogels with different pore sizes and degrees of interconnectivity can be synthesized. The equilibrium swelling ratio in 0.1 M NaCl increases with the amount of HEC employed. Tensile tests run on equilibrated hydrogels show that these materials behave as rubber-like materials. Their mechanical stiffness decreases regularly as the amount of HEC, and therefore their porosity, is increased. A more complex trend is observed for elongation and stress at break, which display a maximum at intermediate contents of HEC.