Gamma radiation synthesis of rapid swelling superporous polyacrylamide hydrogels

In this report a simple route for gamma radiation induced synthesis of superporous hydrogel (SPH) is described. Conventional SPH synthesis requires foaming and cross-linking reactions to take place simultaneously. However, in radiation synthesis it is difficult to introduce foaming during the cross-linking reactions. In order to overcome this limitation, the foaming and radiation cross-linking reactions were decoupled and carried out in two stages. The polyacrylamide SPH synthesized by this approach has very fast swelling kinetics compared to the non-porous hydrogel. (C) 2009 Published by Elsevier Ltd.