Modulating the mechanical properties of photopolymerised polyethylene glycol–polypropylene glycol hydrogels for bone regeneration

Abstract

Hydrogels formulated from single polymers are often insufficient in terms of their mechanical properties for use as bone substitute materials. Hence, hydrogels synthesised from combinations of polymers have been investigated to optimise the performance of such materials. In the current study, polypropylene glycol dimethacrylate was added to polyethylene glycol dimethacrylate of a variety of molecular weights and photopolymerised to form a series of hydrogels. Polyethylene glycol and polypropylene glycol have the same chemical structure with the exception of a methyl group on the later. Herein, the influence of the methyl group of polypropylene glycol on the mechanical properties of hydrogels for bone regeneration applications is reported. For both unconfined and cyclic compression testing, results demonstrated that the incorporation of PEGDMA into the precursor improves the compression strength of the hydrogels. For example, in unconfined compression tests the Young's modulus varied between 6.62 ± 0.31 MPa and 8.08 ± 0.81 MPa with the incorporation of PEGDMA 400.

NMR study of photo‐crosslinked solid polymer electrolytes: The influence of monofunctional oligoethers

“…Data obtained as maximum of the tan (δ) curve from DMTA confirm the same trends (not shown). T g values are in the expected range for this kind of crosslinked systems . Although differences among the T g values are within the experimental error, a slight increase in T g with the monofunctional content can be noticed.…”

Synthesis and characterization of physically crosslinked N‐vinylcaprolactam, acrylic acid, methacrylic acid, and N,N‐dimethylacrylamide hydrogels

“…Hydrogels can be tailored by varying the porosity, pore size, surface to volume ratio, compressive modulus, topography, and wettability which makes them promising candidates for biomedical applications. Hydrogels have been widely synthesized by radical polymerization using UV photopolymerization or by redox polymerization . Photopolymerization is favored because hydrogels can be synthesized at temperatures and pH conditions near physiological conditions and even in the presence of biologically active materials .…”

Tensile Fatigue of Poly(Vinyl Alcohol) Hydrogels with Bio‐Friendly Toughening Agents

“…[ 29–31 ] With the ability to tailor the properties of PEGDMA hydrogels based on the balance between polymer molecular weight and water content, [ 32 ] a diverse range of biomedical applications has been pursued for further study. [ 33–36 ] However, PEGDMA hydrogels often lack sufficient ultimate strength for load‐bearing applications. As such, these hydrogels often require reinforcement resulting in only moderate improvements in mechanical behavior.…”