Biomedical Engineering, Center of Engineering, Modelling and Applied Social Sciences, Federal University of ABC (UFABC), São Bernardo do Campo, SP, Brazil
Dr. Sônia Maria Malmonge
Biomedical Engineering, Center of Engineering, Modelling and Applied Social Sciences, Federal University of ABC (UFABC), São Bernardo do Campo, SP, Brazil
Dense and porous polyHEMA hydrogels were synthesized by bulk and solution radical-initiated polymerization techniques. The morphologic analysis (SEM) of obtained hydrogels showed an amorphous dense structure for the samples obtained by bulk polymerization and a porous structure with non connected porous as a result of bulk polymerization in the presence of water soluble crystals (sucrose/NaCl). The use of solution polymerization technique using different amounts of water as diluent resulted in the formation of a sponge-like structure with connected microporous in case of using water amount equal or higher than 57.5%. The saline solution uptake and dynamic mechanical behavior of dense hydrogels were influenced by the amount of crosslinking between the polymer chains