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Hemicellulose/poly(2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate) (PHEMA)-based hydrogels were prepared by the radical polymerization of HEMA with hemicellulose purposely modified with well-defined amounts of methacrylic functions using a redox initiator system. Oligomeric hydrosoluble hemicelluloses produced from spruce chips were used for modification studies. The chemical modification of hemicellulose was performed with 2-(1-imidazolyl)formyloxyethyl methacrylate as a modifying agent and triethylamine as the catalyst. The kinetics of the modification reaction was monitored by means of 1H NMR spectroscopy. The resulting hydrogels obtained after a 30 min reaction were homogeneous, elastic, and transparent materials.
Lindblad et al. (Wed,) studied this question.