Fabrication and characterization of copper nanoparticles in PVA/PAAm IPNs and swelling of the resulting nanocomposites

Well-dispersed copper nanoparticles were fabricated using poly(vinyl alcohol)/polyacrylamide interpenetrating polymer networks (PVA/PAAm IPNs) as a nanoreactor template. The synthesis of the IPNs hydrogels was achieved in the presence of glutaraldehyde and N,N'-methylene-bis-acrylamide. The resulting PVA/PAAm/Cu nanocomposite hydrogels were characterized, and the swelling and mechanical properties were investigated. The results indicated that the copper nanoparticles had a spherical shape with a size range from 10 to 20 nm. The complexation of PVA in PVA/PAAm IPNs with Cu2+ played an important role in avoiding the aggregation of copper nanoparticles and providing particle size and size distribution controllability and stability. Although the swelling capacity of the nanocomposite hydrogels was slightly lower than that of the control, they had better compression mechanical properties. The water uptake and mechanical properties can be easily tuned by changing the component ratios to meet the requirements of specific applications, such as drug controlled release or tissue engineering.