Ultra-Facile Fabrication of Hydrogels through Photopolymerization of Oleyl Methacrylate and Epoxidized Oleyl Methacrylate with N-Isopropylacrylamide

Abstract

This study reports an ultra-facile, economical, and environmentally friendly hydrogel synthesis method using renewable raw materials. The synthesis and photopolymerization of oleyl methacrylate (OM) and the epoxidized derivative of OM monomers are evaluated. In the first step, oleyl alcohol is esterified with methacryloyl chloride and then epoxidized via the Prilezhaev reaction. These monomers are used for hydrogel synthesis. For this purpose, they are polymerized with N-isopropyl acrylamide, N,N-methylene bis(acrylamide), or ethylene glycol dimethacrylate (EDGMA) via the photopolymerization technique. Novel hydrogels are successfully fabricated using a green process. Epoxidized OM-based hydrogel achieves an excellent yield of 87.1%. Moreover, low-energy UV irradiation and short reaction times reduces energy consumption. The thermal properties of the gels are also considered by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and thermogravimetric analysis techniques. DSC results reveal that the epoxidized OM-based hydrogel exhibits a melting peak at 84.5 degrees C. The highest 5% weight loss temperature is obtained for the OM-EDGMA copolymer as an indicator of thermal stability.