Hybrid Hydrogels Based on Poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA)/Agar/Poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) Prepared by High Energy Electron Beam Irradiation: Investigation of Physico-Mechanical and Rheological Properties

Abstract

A series of hybrid hydrogels based on poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA)/agar/poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) prepared by a solution casting method using e‐beam irradiation are investigated to determine the effect of agar and PEG content (1, 2, and 4 wt%) on their physicomechanical and rheological properties. The gel content of the hydrogels decreases with increasing agar and PEG contents. The equilibrium swelling of PVA hydrogel decreases on blending with agar while adding PEG to PVA/agar increases the swelling by about 400%. No obvious change in the dehydration behavior of the hybrid hydrogels is observed on changing agar and PEG contents. The solid‐like rheological behavior of the hydrogels is not significantly affected by agar content, while it approaches a liquid‐like behavior at high PEG loading. The tensile strength of the hybrid hydrogels is improved by increasing agar content, while its elongation‐at‐break is decreased. On the other hand, the opposite results are found regarding the influence of PEG and its content on the mechanical properties of the hybrid hydrogels.

Physical modification approaches to enhance cell supporting potential of poly (vinyl alcohol)‐based hydrogels

“…As for the air plasma, the attack of the oxygen radicals, would likely lead to the formation of activated C═O bonds on the surface of PVA [Figure 3(c)]. Similar mechanism has been also mentioned by others for irradiation of PVA in the presence of air 35,36 …”

Differentiation of neonate mouse spermatogonial stem cells on three-dimensional agar/polyvinyl alcohol nanofiber scaffold

“…Numerous electrospun nanofibrillar surfaces have been developed recently for culturing various types of stem cells (Nur et al 2006;Li et al 2015;Talebi et al 2019). Polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) is considered to be one of the most desirable polymers for biomedical applications due to a variety of advantages, including low cost, biodegradability, biocompatibility, lack of carcinogenicity, and nontoxicity (Entezam et al 2017). Since PVA also possesses an exceptional spinnability, it is continuously utilized as a co-blending polymer in electrospinning experiments to construct new 3D cell cultures (Greiner and Wendorff 2007;Sousa et al 2015).…”

Mechanical properties and drug release rate of poly(vinyl alcohol)/poly(ethylene glycol)/clay nanocomposite hydrogels: Correlation with structure and physical properties

“…Among various nanoparticles, in recent years, clay nanoparticles have been attracted much attention to manufacture the polymer nanocomposites, due to their good performance, availability, and low cost. Also, considering the desirable features of polyvinyl alcohol (PVA), it is one of the most important synthetic polymers used to make the hydrogels with medical applications …”

“…On the other hand, it was well known that blending of PVA with PEG could modify the hydrogel barrier property against the penetration of bacteria and the flexibility of the hydrogel but diminish its strength . It was also reported by Dutta that the presence of PEG in the PVA‐PEG‐CaCl 2 hydrogels crosslinked by gamma‐irradiation method could improve the thermal stability of the hydrogel and accelerate the wound healing rate…”