Preparation and Properties of Polyacrylamide/ Titanium Oxide Hydrogels

In this study, using acrylamide (AAm) as monomer, potassium persulfate (K2S2O8) as initiator, N, N, N’, N’-tetramethylethylenediamine as accelerator, and N, N’-methylenebisacrylamide as crosslinking agents, titanium dioxide (TiO2) as inorganic enforcement fillers, the PAAm/TiO2 organic-inorganic composite hydrogels with enhanced mechanical properties were prepared by free radical polymerization. The obtained hydrogels were characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), mechanical and swelling property tests. The experimental results show that PAAm/TiO2 organic-inorganic composite hydrogels were successfully synthesized, the mechanical property of the hydrogel was improved but the swelling ratio of the hydrogel was decreased due to the addition of TiO2.