Physical Chemistry and Physico-Chemistry of Polymers, Faculty of Chemistry, Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń, 7 Gagarina Street, 87-100 Toruń, Poland.
Plastica Sp. Z O.O., Frydrychowo 55, 87-410 Kowalewo Pomorskie, Poland.
Int J Mol Sci. 2022 May 11;23(10):5386. doi: 10.3390/ijms23105386.
Due to the growing demand for sustainable hygiene products (that will exhibit biodegradability and compostability properties), the challenge of developing a superabsorbent polymer that absorbs significant amounts of liquid has been raised so that it can be used in the hygiene sector in the future. The work covers the study of the swelling and dehydration kinetics of hydrogels formed by grafting polymerization of carboxymethyl starch (CMS) and chitosan (Ch). Vanillin (Van) was used as the crosslinking agent. The swelling and dehydration kinetics of the polymers were measured in various solutes including deionized water buffers with pH from 1 to 12 and in aqueous solutions of sodium chloride at 298 and 311 K. The surface morphology and texture properties of the analyzed hydrogels were observed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The influence of this structure on swelling and dehydration is discussed. Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) analyses confirmed the interaction between the carboxymethyl starch carbonyl groups and the chitosan amino groups in the resulting hydrogels. Additionally, spectroscopic analyses confirmed the formation of acetal crosslink bridges including vanillin molecules. The chemical dynamics studies revealed that new hydrogel dehydration kinetics strongly depend on the vanillin content. The main significance of the study concerns the positive results of the survey for the new superabsorbent polymer material, coupling high fluid absorbance with biodegradability. The studies on biodegradability indicated that resulting materials show good environmental degradability characteristics and can be considered true biodegradable superabsorbent polymers.
由于对可持续卫生产品（具有生物降解性和可堆肥性）的需求不断增长，因此提出了开发能够吸收大量液体的高吸水性聚合物的挑战，以便将来可以在卫生领域中使用。这项工作涵盖了通过接枝聚合羧甲基淀粉（CMS）和壳聚糖（Ch）来研究水凝胶的溶胀和脱水动力学。香草醛（Van）用作交联剂。在各种溶质中测量了聚合物的溶胀和脱水动力学，包括 pH 值从 1 到 12 的去离子水缓冲液和 298 和 311 K 下的氯化钠水溶液。通过扫描电子显微镜（SEM）观察分析水凝胶的表面形貌和结构特性。讨论了这种结构对溶胀和脱水的影响。傅立叶变换红外（FTIR）分析证实了所得水凝胶中羧甲基淀粉羰基和壳聚糖氨基之间的相互作用。此外，光谱分析证实了包括香草醛分子在内的缩醛交联桥的形成。化学动力学研究表明，新水凝胶的脱水动力学强烈依赖于香草醛的含量。研究的主要意义在于对新型高吸水性聚合物材料的调查结果令人满意，该材料将高流体吸收率与生物降解性结合在一起。对生物降解性的研究表明，所得到的材料表现出良好的环境降解特性，可被认为是真正的可生物降解的高吸水性聚合物。
