Synthesis and study of the structure of copolymers of rarely crosslinked polyacrylic acid

The effect of synthesis conditions on the structure of acrylic acid and N,N-methylene bisacrylamide copolymers has been investigated. Optimal conditions for the synthesis of polymers with linear, tree-like, and crosslinked macromolecular structures have been established. The properties of the synthesized polymers, namely density, degree of swelling, gel fraction, etc., were investigated. It has been shown that copolymers with crosslinked macromolecules form hydrogels, the swelling degree of which considerably depends on the synthesis conditions. For copolymers forming hydrogels, the density of crosslinking units was determined based on the dependence of the density and equilibrium swelling degree.