Abstract: A thermoresponsive hydrogel composed of 2-hydroxy-3-isopropoxypropyl starch (HIPS) and sodium alginate (SA) was synthesized via cross-linking with hybrid crosslinkers including ethylene glycol diglycidyl ether (EDGE) and calcium chloride (CaCl2).Attenuated total reflection infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) was used to confirm the occurrence of crosslinking.The HIPS/SA composite hydrogels were investigated for their porous architecture and thermoresponsive property using scanning electron microscopy (SEM).The reaction temperature and reaction time significantly affected the swelling rate of HIPS/SA composite hydrogels (P<0.01).The optimum HIPS/SA hydrogel synthesis was observed under conditions of HIPS concentration of 6.5% (2 g),SA concentration of 4.5% (2 g),NaOH of 300 μL,EDGE of 300 μL,reaction temperature of 55 ℃ and reaction period of 3 h,with the hydrogel swelling ratio of 44.20 under above conditions.It was found that the HIPS/SA hydrogel possessed desirable thermoresponsive property,and the swelling rate (SR) of hydrogel was sharply decreased when the temperature was higher than volume phase transition temperature (VPTT) 34.9 ℃.The HIPS/SA hydrogel with thermoresponsive properties synthesised in this study can provide a new method for the application in the fields of drug delivery and separation engineering.
2022, Vol. 37 
