Investigation of Mechanical Properties and Dye Adsorption Capacities of Novel Hydrophobic Association Nanocomposite Hydrogels

Abstract:

The preparation of high performance hydrogels has always been one of the research focuses in the area of soft matters and functional polymers. In this paper, a facile method was developed for the preparation of high performance hydrophobic association nanocomposite hydrogels (HANC gels) via in situ copolymerization of acrylamide (AM) and octadecyl methacrylate (OMA) in the aqueous suspension of hectorite clay Laponite HZ-200 (clay) with sodium dodecyl benzene sulfonate (SDBS). Tensile hysteresis curves showed that the hysteresis degrees between HANC gels and conventional hydrophobic association hydrogels (HA gels) were almost the same, but the tensile strength of the HANC gel reinforced by just 0.4 wt% clay at the strain of 1500% was already as 630% as the strength of the HA gel, which indicated that the mechanical properties of the HA gel were greatly enhanced by the introduction of a small amount of clay without increasing the internal friction in the hydrogel network. The effects of clay on the structure of HANC gels were further confirmed by swelling test, it was found that the addition of clay effectively maintained the structural integrity of HANC gels in watery environment and prevented the collapse of gel network. Moreover, HANC gels exhibited superior cationic dye adsorption capacity compared to HA gels due to the existence of abundant negative charges on the surfaces of clay nanosheets

• Periodical: Materials Science Forum (Volume 815)
• Pages: 568-575
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.4028/www.scientific.net/MSF.815.568
• Online since: March 2015
• Authors: Wei Cui, Ting Li, Hang Li, Le Min Zhu, Huan Liu, Rong Ran*
• Keywords: Dye Adsorption, Hectorite Clay, High Performance, Hydrophobic Association, Nanocomposite Hydrogel

References

[1] C.S. Brazel and N.A. Peppas, Synthesis and characterization of thermo- and chemo-mechanically responsive poly (N-isopropylacrylamide-co-methacrylic acid) hydrogels, Macromolecules. 28 (1995) 8016-8020.

DOI: 10.1021/ma00128a007

[2] L. Dong, A.K. Agarwal, D.J. Beebe, H.R. Jiang, Adaptive liquid microlenses activated by stimuli-responsive hydrogels, Nature. 442 (2006) 551-554.

DOI: 10.1038/nature05024

[3] K.E. Crompton, J.D. Goud, R.V. Bellamkonda, T.R. Gengenbach, D.I. Finkelstein, M.K. Horne, J.S. Forsythe, Polylysine-functionalised thermoresponsive chitosan hydrogel for neural tissue engineering, Biomaterials. 28 (2007) 441-449.

DOI: 10.1016/j.biomaterials.2006.08.044

[4] M.M. Ei-Masry, M.M.M. EInashar, H.M. El-Sherif, Amphoteric hydrogels for immobilization of enzymes using template polymerization technique, J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 106 (2007) 3571-3580.

DOI: 10.1002/app.26931

[5] Y.J. Lee, P.V. Braun, Tunable inverse opal hydrogel pH sensors, Adv. Mater. 15 (2003) 563-566.

DOI: 10.1002/adma.200304588

[6] A. Richter, G. Paschew, S. Klatt, J. Lienig, K.F. Arndt, H.J.P. Adler, Review on hydrogel-based pH sensors and microsensors, Sensors. 8 (2008) 561-581.

DOI: 10.3390/s8010561

[7] G. Jiang, F.Q. Liu, Network structure and compositional effects on tensile mechanical properties of hydrophobic association hydrogels with high mechanical strength, Polymer. 51 (2010) 1507-1515.

DOI: 10.1016/j.polymer.2010.01.061

[8] U. Gulyuz, O. Okay, Self-healing polyacrylic acid hydrogels, Soft Matter. 9 (2013) 10287-10293.

DOI: 10.1039/c3sm52015c

[9] G.Q. Jiang, F.Q. Liu, Construction and properties of hydrophobic association hydrogels with high mechanical strength and reforming capability, Macromol. Mater. Eng. 294 (2009) 815-820.

DOI: 10.1002/mame.200900160

[10] K. Haraguchi, T. Takehisa, Nanocomposite hydrogels: a unique organic-inorganic network structure with extraordinary mechanical, optical, and swelling/de-swelling properties, Adv. Mater. 14 (2002) 1120.

DOI: 10.1002/1521-4095(20020816)14:16<1120::aid-adma1120>3.0.co;2-9

[11] K. Haraguchi, M. Ebato, T. Takehisa, Polymer–clay nanocomposites exhibiting abnormal necking phenomena accompanied by extremely large reversible elongations and excellent transparency, Adv. Mater. 18 (2006) 2250-2254.

DOI: 10.1002/adma.200600143

[12] Q. Zhang, T. Zhang, T. He, L. Chen, Removal of crystal violet by clay/PNIPAm nanocomposite hydrogels with various clay contents, Appl. Clay Sci. 90 (2014) 1-5.

DOI: 10.1016/j.clay.2014.01.003

[13] L. Xiong, X. Hu, X. Liu, Z. Tong, Network chain density and relaxation of in situ synthesized polyacrylamide/hectorite clay nanocomposite hydrogels with ultrahigh tensibility, Polymer. 49 (2008) 5064-5071.

DOI: 10.1016/j.polymer.2008.09.021

[14] G.Q. Jiang, F.Q. Liu, Self-healing Mechanism and mechanical behavior of hydrophobic association hydrogels with high mechanical strength, J. Macromol. Sci., Part A: Pure Appl. Chem. 47 (2010) 335-342.

DOI: 10.1080/10601320903539272

[15] A. Hill, F. Candau, J. Selb, Properties of hydrophobically associating polyacrylamides: influence of the method of synthesis, Macromolecules. 26 (1993) 4521-4532.

DOI: 10.1021/ma00069a017

[16] K.C. Dowling, J.K. Thomas, A novel micellar synthesis and photophysical characterization of water-soluble acrylamide-styrene block copolymers, Macromolecules. 23 (1990) 1059-1064.

DOI: 10.1021/ma00206a025

[17] S. Biggs, J. Selb, F. Candau, Effect of surfactant on the solution properties of hydrophobically modified polyacrylamide, Langmuir. 8 (1992) 838-847.

DOI: 10.1021/la00039a018

[18] A.J. Dualeh, C.A. Steiner, Hydrophobic microphase formation in surfactant solutions containing an amphiphilic graft copolymer, Macromolecules. 23 (1990) 251-255.

DOI: 10.1021/ma00203a043

[19] K. Haraguchi, H.J. Li, K. Matsuda, Mechanism of forming organic/inorganic network structures during in-situ free-radical polymerization in PNIPA-clay nanocomposite hydrogels, Macromolecules. 38 (2005) 3482-3490.

DOI: 10.1021/ma047431c

[20] S. Li, X. Liu, Synthesis, characterization and evaluation of semi-IPN hydrogels consisted of poly (methacrylic acid) and guar gum for colon-specific drug delivery, Adv. Polym. Tech. 19 (2008) 371-376.

DOI: 10.1002/pat.1018

[21] P. Liu, L.X. Zhang, Adsorption of dyes from aqueous solutions or suspensions with clay nano-adsorbents, Sep. Purif. Technol. 58 (2007) 32-39.

DOI: 10.1016/j.seppur.2007.07.007