PVA-Based Hydrogels

Polyvinyl alcohol (PVA)-based hydrogels are colloidal dispersions with a three-dimensional network structure formed by crosslinking and swelling. They have been extensively explored due to their chemical stability, nontoxic, good biocompatibility, biological aging resistance, high water adsorption capacity, and easy processing. Studies have shown that PVA-based hydrogels have potential application value in many fields, especially in biomedicine.

The preparation methods of PVA-based hydrogels mainly include physical crosslinking, chemical crosslinking, and irradiation crosslinking.

• Physical crosslinking

Physical crosslinking is a reversible method for PVA-based hydrogel preparation, which is based on the physical interaction between the different polymer chains. The common methods of physical crosslinking are freeze-thawing, charge interaction, and hydrogen bonding.

• Chemical crosslinking

Chemical crosslinking method involves the use of crosslinking agents to prepare PVA-based hydrogels. The commonly used chemical crosslinking reagents include glutaraldehyde, glyoxal, and boric acid. The introduction of chemical crosslinking reagents can greatly improve the mechanical strength and stiffness of PVA-based hydrogels.

• Irradiation crosslinking

Another approach to preparing PVA-based hydrogels is radiation crosslinking, which allows the creation of radicals in the polymer chain of PVA-based hydrogels, inducing the formation of covalent bonds between their functional groups. The main advantage of this method is that the pore size of PVA-based hydrogels can be controlled by varying the irradiation dose.

PVA-based hydrogels have attracted much attention due to their excellent properties. Their applications in biomedicine such as drug delivery carriers, tissue engineering scaffolds, implanted artificial muscles and organs, biosensors, wound dressings, and soft robots have attracted much attention. In addition, their applications in other intelligent materials such as self-healing and shape-memory materials, supercapacitors, and sensors have also received wide attention.

Alfa Chemistry is a leading global supplier of hydrogels. Our experienced scientists focus on the production and performance improvement of PVA-based hydrogels. Our products include but are not limited to the following. Please contact us to customize the PVA-based hydrogels you need, and we will provide you with high quality products according to your detailed requirements.

Please kindly note that our products and services are for research use only.

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