Abstract
The compression properties of a novel family of hydrogels prepared from diepoxy-terminated poly(ethylene glycol)s of approximate molecular weights 600, 1000, 2000 and 4000 Daltons and various aliphatic polyamines of different chain length and functionality (ethylenediamine, 1,4-diaminobutane, hexamethylenediamine, 1,8-octanediamine, diethylenetriamine, triethylenetetramine, tris(2-aminoethyl)amine) were determined by uniaxial compression. It was shown that both elastic and compression moduli, and compression strength of the fully swelled hydrogels depended on the molecular weight of the PEG oligomer, structure and functionality of the aliphatic amine employed as crosslinker, and mole ratio between the reacting groups, as a consequence of the different crosslinking degree of the resulting networks. Keywords: hydrogels; poly(ethylene glycol), epoxy groups, aliphatic polyamines, uniaxial compression