Water Sorption and Biocompatibility Evaluation of Poly(Vinyl Alcohol – Acrylonitrile) Based Hydrogels

Abstract The present work describes the synthesis of novel semi-IPNs of polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) and acrylonitrile (AN), in various proportions, by redox polymerization method followed by their structural analysis by FTIR technique. The phase morphology has been studied with scanning electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction technique has been utilized to detect the crystalline and amorphous characteristics of the synthesized gels. Water sorption capacity and in vitro blood compatibility of the specimens have been studied and their thermal transition being investigated by DSC technique. Whereas the IR spectra of the synthesized semi-IPNs confirms the formation of a physical gel with polymer chains held to each other via hydrogen bonding, their SEM images show a less rough surface. Correlation of swelling and compatibility studies proves the approach to be beneficial for various biomedical, industrial and other applications which is further confirmed by their DSC thermograms that shows quite stable thermal behavior of the synthesized gels. Their XRD patterns indicate that the crystallinity in the membrane is mainly due to PVA. Keywords: AcrylonitrileBlood compatibilityGlass transition temperature (Tg)Semi-IPNs Acknowledgment The authors would like to acknowledge IUC-DAE Consortium for Scientific Research, Indore, (M.P.) for providing SEM, DSC, and XRD facilities.