Chitosan-based hydrogel has received
considerable interests because
of its appealing properties and applications in many areas. The primary
objective of this work was to produce novel cationic chitosan-based
hydrogels via polymerizing chitosan with two cationic monomers of
the same structure but with different counter ions [2-(methacryloyloxy)ethyl]trimethylammonium
methyl sulfate (METMS) and [2-(methacryloyloxy)ethyl]trimethylammonium
chloride (METAC). Polymerization of chitosan with the cationic monomers
performed under the conditions of 50 °C, 5 h, 7 pH, and 2/1 mol/mol
monomer/chitosan led to chitosan–METMS and −METAC with
the cationic charge densities of 3.22 and 2.88 mequiv/g, respectively.
Elemental analysis, gel permeation chromatography, Fourier transform
infrared, X-ray diffraction, and differential scanning calorimetry
analyses were used to confirm the impact of counter ions of cationic
monomers (i.e., polarizability of monomers) on their polymerization
performance and the characteristics of induced chitosan-based hydrogels.
Also, the results of this work postulated that the counter ions associated
with the monomers could dramatically impact the water uptake and swelling
properties of the generated chitosan-based hydrogels as well as their
performance in adsorbing an anionic dye from a simulated solution.