Composition dependent mechanical response of transparent poly(vinyl alcohol) hydrogels

From biomedical perspective, physically crosslinked poly(vinyl alcohol) hydrogels are excellent materials owing to their biological tissue like nature. Transparent poly(vinyl alcohol) hydrogels, derived from their aqueous solutions, with varying polymer concentrations were synthesized by the simple freeze-thawing method and structure property correlations have been established as a function of concentration. Mechanical stability of the hydrogels has been of prime importance in a number of biomedical applications. Present study demonstrates a systematic variation in mechanical response of hydrogels as a function of polymer concentration that in-turn may be correlated with concentration dependent degree of crystallinity and mechanical response. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.