Abstract

Background: The superabsorbent polymers based conducting hydrogel such as polyaniline impregnated polyacrylate-starch hydrogel were synthesized via two -steps interpenetrating polymer network process. In the present work instead of using a synthetic polymer of acrylamide, a biodegradable polymer such as starch has been used with polyacrylate superabsorbent polymer. The main attempt of this work is to analyze the electrical conductivity of resulting hydrogel at varying concentrations of crosslinker, initiator, monomer, and a copolymer for improving the properties of synthesized hydrogel and elaborating the diversity of its utilization.

Methods: The polymerization of aniline was performed through the absorption of aniline monomer into the polymer matrix followed by the addition of initiator/dopant solution. The morphological and structural analysis and thermal stability of the synthesized hydrogel were studied using Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), respectively. The swelling behaviour of the synthesized hydrogel was performed in a different medium.

Results: Electrical conductivity data of polyacrylate-starch/polyaniline (PAANa-starch/PANI) were compared from polyacrylate-co-polyacrylamide/polyaniline P(AANa-co-AM)/PANI hydrogel, which revealed that polyacrylate-starch/polyaniline shows higher conductivity than polyacrylate-co-polyacrylamide/ polyaniline conducting hydrogel. Maximum swelling of the synthesized hydrogel was reported in the basic medium.

Conclusion: It is observed that the addition of starch into the matrix significantly improved the overall properties of hydrogel. The polymerization of aniline was done in-situ with the absorption of aniline monomer into the PAANa-starch polymer matrix followed by soaking in an initiator/dopant solution. The XRD pattern of PAANa-starch/PANI showed a broad peak at 22.8o while no peak was observed in the PAANa-starch gel, implying that PAANa-starch/PANI has a crystalline and more ordered structure. PAANa-starch/PANI has higher conductivity than the P(AANa-co-AM)/PANI hydrogel. This enhanced electrical conductivity in case of PAANa-starch/PANI hydrogel could be due to the more crosslink points of synthetic polymer polyacrylamide between PAANa-PANI hydrogel.

Keywords: Electrical conductivity, polyacrylate, surface morphology, hydrogel, conducting polymers, superabsorbent polymers.