The effect of Crosslinking Agents on the Synthesis and Swelling of the Polymer Networks

Polymer networks of 2-Hydroxyethyl methacrylate (HEMA) and N­Hydroxymethyl acrylamide (HMA) were prepared by varying the amount of the Ethylene dimethacrylate (EDMA) and N, N-Methylene diacrylamide (MDA) as crosslinking agents. These Polymer networks have the glassy behavior in dry state, with elasticity when they absorb certain amount of water. In both cases, the material behavior is influenced, to great extent, by the network prepared, i.e., by crosslinking reaction. It is known that the netwprk characteristics (crosslink density, etc.) are influenced not only by the concentration of crosslinking agent, but also by its chemical structure. By varying the amount of crosslinking agents and equimolar ratio of the monomers, a wide range of networks were synthesized and the influence of the temperature and crosslinking on their swelling is discussed. A correlation between swelling data, derived from loosely crosslinked samples, led to the determination of the interaction parameters of strongly crosslinked polymer networks of series I and II has been described

A WADOOD ,S ZULFIQAR ,H U REHAMAN ,A QUDDOS ,M L MIRZA ,