Radiation Synthesis, Characterization of Nanocomposites Based on Natural Polymer Blends and their Biomedical Applications

Abstract

Different hydrophilic nanocopmosite hydrogels was prepared by gamma radiation copolymerization to be used in biomedical applications. The results obtained throughout this work may be presented through the following parts: (I) Gamma Radiation Synthesis and Characterization of Hydrogels Based on Starch (PLSt), Acrylic Acid (AAc) and Monmorillonite as nanocomposite (MMT) A copolymer hydrogels based on different ratios of acrylic acid (AAc) monomers, plasticized starch (PLSt) and Monmorillonite as nanocomposite (MMT) were prepared by gamma radiation copolymerization. The resulted hydrogels were characterized by FT-IR spectroscopy, thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), transmittance electron microscope (TEM), and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The effect of composite and radiation dose on the degree of gelation and swelling of formed hydrogels was also studied to find that increasing the ratio of AAc increases gel fraction while decreases swelling, while MMT increase both gelation and swelling. Sulphanilamide was used as drug model for drug delivery applications. The followings are the important results obtained in this part: