Preparation of Polyvinyl Pyrrolidone-Based Hydrogels by Radiation-Induced Crosslinking with Potential Application as Wound Dressing

Polyvinyl pyrrolidone/polyethylene glycol hydrogels (PVP/PEG) and PVP/PEG/Starch were prepared by irradiating the mixtures of aqueous solutions of PVP, PEG and starch with electron beam at different doses. Their properties were evaluated to identify their usability in wound dressing applications. The physical properties of the prepared hydrogels, such as gel content, swelling, water content and degree of water evaporation with varying composition and irradiation dose were examined to evaluate the usefulness of the hydrogels for wound dressing. The gel content increases with increasing PVP concentration due to increased crosslink density, and decreases with increasing the PEG concentration. PEG seems to act not only as plasticizer but also to modify the gel properties as gelation% and maximum swelling. Mechanical experiments were conducted for both PVP/PEG and PVP/PEG/Starch. The adding of PEG and starch to PVP significantly improves elongation and tensile strength of prepared hydrogels, respectively. The crystallinity of both prepared hydrogels was investigated with varying their components, XRD studies indicated that the crystallinity in the gel was mainly due to PVP and mainly decreased with enhanced starch content. The prepared hydrogels had sufficient strength to be used as wound dressing and could be considered as a good barrier against microbes.