Hydrogels are used in biomedical and wearable systems because they are soft, hydrated, and able to conform to tissue, but it is often difficult to compare results when the preparation of common “baseline” networks is not reported in a consistent and reproducible way. This work develops controlled preparation protocols for three representative hydrogel systems: poly(acrylic acid) (PAA), polyacrylamide (PAM), and poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA). PAA was synthesized using both thermal and UV-light polymerization, which allows the same network to be examined under two curing routes while varying one formulation parameter at a time. Systematic crosslinker variation within an APS/TEMED redox polymerization framework facilitated the preparation of PAM, while PVA was prepared by freeze–thaw cycling. Evaluation of handling stability and freeze-dried cross-sectional morphologies via SEM provided a direct comparison for each hydrogel system under standardized conditions. This study yields practical protocols that distinguish intrinsic formulation impacts from processing-driven variability in hydrogel architecture.
Daniel C. Lim (Thu,) studied this question.