Green starch/graphene oxide hydrogel nanocomposites for sustained release applications

Abstract

Green nanocomposite hydrogels (ST-PHEMA/GO) comprised of starch and 2-Hydroxyethyl methacrylate (HEMA) reinforced with diferent ratios of graphene oxide (GO) were prepared via gamma radiation induced crosslinking polymerization. The chemical structure and morphology and the crystallinity were studied by FTIR FE-SEM, AFM, TEM and XRD, respectively. The swelling behavior of the claimed hydrogels was verifed versus time and the pH-dependent swelling at three diferent irradiation dose:10, 20 and 30 kGy was also investigated. The results of the swelling study showed that the swelling capac- ity of the hydrogel networks varied with the changes of the pH of the solution, the GO content and the irradiation doses. Moreover, the swelling isotherm of all the prepared hydrogels followed a Fickian difusion mechanism n<0.5.