Abstract.1 Sorption ability of intergel system polymethacrylic acid hydrogel (gPMAA) -poly-4-vinylpyridine hydrogel (gP4VP) in relation to lanthanum ions is studied. Hydrogels mutual activation in an aqueous medium, particularly dependencies of swelling coefficient, specific electric conductivity and pH of water solutions are studied. Maximum activation of hydrogels occurs at gPMAA:gP4VP molar ratio 3:3. Maximum total binding degree of polymer chain in the intergel system is observed at the ratio gPMAA:gP4VP = 1:5. It has the value of 73.13 %, which is much higher than at initial hydrogels: gPMAA binding degree is 55.17 %, gP4VP -55.00 %. The obtained results point to the fact that at this ratio there are significant changes of electrochemical, conformational and sorption degrees of initial macromolecules in intergel system.

Synthetic hydrogels are often used in biomedical applications as many of them are compatible with living tissue and moreover they can meet most criteria for artificial tissue properties. For applications in tissue engineering modification of polymer surface using some bioactive compounds (e.g. saccharides, proteins) for promoting the process of cell adhesion and proliferation is widely used. In this work, a series of modified hydrogels was prepared by three different methods: by copolymerization of 2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate with methacrylic acid, by hydrolysis and oxidation of poly(2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate) to obtain carboxyl-rich supports. The influence of the reaction conditions of the hydrogel surface treatment on the total carboxylic group content and the swelling degree was studied. The modified hydrogels were characterized by attenuated total reflectance FT-IR spectroscopy and refractive index measurements. Obtained carboxylic groups on the hydrogel surface have allowed the immobilization of avidin in two ways: 1) electrostatically through dissociated carboxylic groups and 2) covalently bonded through activated carboxylic groups by Nhydroxysuccinimide. The capacity of hydrogels for avidin immobilization was determined by Bradford spectrophotometric method. The results so far obtained from the preliminary biological tests showed that immobilized avidin on the hydrogel surface provides better adhesion and proliferation of keratinocytes compared to supports without avidin.

The presence of a three-dimensional hydrophilic network structure ensures the uniqueness and wide practical application of hydrogels in industry, medicine, agriculture, etc. On their basis, soft contact lenses, dressings, superabsorbents, catalysts, soil structuring agents, preventing root drying and improving plant survival, have been created. The aimof this work is to synthesize new water-swellable polymer composites by combining monomer units of various natures based on acrylic acid and agar-agar with imidazole, differing in hydrophilic-hydrophobic balance. Results and discussion: The synthesis of new double and ternary polymer composites based on acrylic acid and agar-agar with imidazole was carried out, their physicochemical and complex-forming properties with transition metal ions in an aqueous medium were investigated. Comparative analysis showed that the complexation of interpenetrating networks with FeCl3 is more pronounced than with CoCl2. This fact can be associated with the difficulty of introducing a cobalt ion into the ligand plane during the formation of a metal complex, which further affects the binding to the functional groups of the network. The specific binding of the obtained polymer composites with metal salts was shown, which is carried out through the formation of ion pairs with the participation of counterions and coordination-unsaturated metals, which make the main contribution to the formation of extracomplexes and are responsible for the coordination of oxygen-containing ligands.