Swelling Kinetics of Acrylamide Grafted Polysaccharides Blend Hydrogel

Abstract Hydrogel of polysaccharides blend graft acrylamide (PsB-g-Am) has been synthesized by copolymerization based on a free radical reaction using potassium persulfate (KPS) initiator and methylenebisacrylamide (MBA) as a crosslinking agent under nitrogen atmosphere. The polysaccharides blend (PsB) composed of starch, chitosan and alginate. The produced hydrogels structure have been characterized using FTIR spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction (XRD). Swelling water ratio (SWR) in distilled water for grafted and hydrolyzed hydrogel with different Am/PsB weight ratios have been studied. Maximum obtained SWR was 140 g/g using Am/PsB weight ratio of 0.96. The present work is also addressed a preliminary study for the swelling kinetics of the produced hydrogel. It was found that, the swelling kinetics obeys first-order kinetics.