Radiation-chemical synthesis of hydrogel membranes based on interpolymer complexes of vinyl ethers

Complete text of publication follows. Designing of polyelectrolyte hydrogel membranes is of great interest because they may be useful in separation technology and medicine. Earlier we have studied the formation of interpolymer membranes in the course of thermal treatment of interpolymer complexes (IPC). However, the thermal treatment leads to the crosslinking of dry IPC films through the formation of ester bonds. But the main disadvantage of such membranes is their brittleness. In the present communication the methodology of preparation of polyelectrolyte hydrogel membranes from interpolymer complexes of acrylic acid-co-vinyl butyl ether and vinyl ether of ethyleneglycol-co-vinyl butyl ether is reported. The γ-irradiation treatment of IPC films during 24 h leads to the crosslinking reaction. The increasing of γ-treatment time leads to decreasing of equilibrium swelling degree of IPC films in water, ethanol and water-ethanol mixtures due to the increasing of crosslinking degree. The swelling behavior of IPC films crosslinked by γ-irradiation considerably depends on the vinyl butyl ether content in copolymers. The maximum of swelling corresponds to water-ethanol mixture. Such membranes possess typical polyelectrolyte hydrogel properties and behave pH-, temperature- and ionic strength sensitivity