title: Biodegradability and swelling capacity of kaolin based chitosan-g-PHEMA nanocomposite hydrogel.
abstract: Chitosan, a natural biopolymer, obtained by alkaline deacetylation of chitin, exhibits excellent biological properties such as biodegradability, immunological and antibacterial activity. Recently, there has been a growing interest in the chemical modification of chitosan in order to widen its applications. The chemical modification of chitosan has been achieved via grafting of monomer, 2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate (HEMA) in the presence of the initiator, ammonium persulfate (APS) and kaolin was added to improve the mechanical strength of the newly developed nanocomposites hydrogel. The so prepared grafted nanocomposites hydrogel was characterized by FTIR, XRD, SEM, TEM and TGA. The equilibrium water content (EWC) of the samples were measured at different pH ranges 6.5-8.0 and found optimum at pH 7.5 for biomedical applications. Further, the biodegradability of the samples was studied at different time intervals from 15 days to 1 year but, the kaolin based nanohydrogels exhibited good biodegradability.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Utkal University, Vani Vihar, Bhubaneswar 751004, India.
authors.forename: Arun Kumar
authors.initials: AK
authors.lastname: Pradhan
authors.affiliation: Plastics and Polymer Engineering Department, Maharashtra Institute of Technology, Aurangabad, Maharashtra 431 005, India.
authors.forename: Pradeep Kumar
authors.initials: PK
authors.lastname: Rana
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Utkal University, Vani Vihar, Bhubaneswar 751004, India. Electronic address: psahoochemuu@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Prafulla Kumar
authors.initials: PK
authors.lastname: Sahoo
mesh_terms: D001672:Biocompatible Materials / Q000737:chemistry; D048271:Chitosan / Q000737:chemistry*; D016503:Drug Delivery Systems; D020136:Hydrogel, Polyethylene Glycol Dimethacrylate / Q000737:chemistry*; D007616:Kaolin / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D008422:Materials Testing; D015394:Molecular Structure; D053761:Nanocomposites / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D011102:Polyhydroxyethyl Methacrylate / Q000737:chemistry*; D017550:Spectroscopy, Fourier Transform Infrared; D013818:Thermogravimetry; D014961:X-Ray Diffraction
chemical_list: D001672:Biocompatible Materials; D007616:Kaolin; D011102:Polyhydroxyethyl Methacrylate; D020136:Hydrogel, Polyethylene Glycol Dimethacrylate; D048271:Chitosan
keywords: Biodegradability; Chitosan; EWC; Grafting; Kaolin; Nanocomposite hydrogel