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In this work, the UV-curable superabsorbent hydrogels (SAHs) were synthesized using polyvinyl alcohol, acrylamide and acrylic acid. Then, reinforcement effect of the modified graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3N4) nanoparticles with vinyltrimethoxysilane (VTMS) as a silane coupling agent was studied on the synthesized SAHs properties. By heating a mixture of urea and melamine, g-C3N4 nanoparticles were prepared. g-C3N4 nanoparticles surface was modified by VTMS. Next, g-C3N4/VTMS (CNV) with 0, 0.5 and 1 wt% was added to the SAHs matrix and the SAH/CNV composites were produced. Water absorption and swelling ratio in the SAH/CNV composites were approximately reported to be 1600%. SAH/CNV 0.5 wt% and SAH/CNV 1 wt% composites emitted green fluorescence at 520 nm wavelength led by excitation wavelength at 375 nm. By exposing these samples to UV radiation, absorption bands appeared at 280 and 355 nm, while the neat sample (SAH/CNV 0 wt%) didn’t show UV absorption at the wavelengths higher than 280 nm and also remarkable fluorescence emission. The results of rheological analysis proved that adding CNV to SAHs matrix resulted in improvement of storage and loss moduli of the samples. The SAH/CNV composites also offered self-healing behavior as much as could heal their polymer chains against strain changes.
Madhi et al. (Wed,) studied this question.