Synthesis and Properties of Polyethylene Glycol Diacrylate /2-Hydroxyethyl Mathacrylate Hydrogels

The bioactive synthetic hydrogel materials were prepared with polyethylene glycol diacrylate (PEGDA) and 2-hydroxyethyl mathacrylate (HEMA) by UV photo-polymerization. The aim of this study was to prepare a scaffold material by combining HEMA into a composite polymeric PEGDA-based hydrogel, which were used as bioactive artificial cartilage. The structure and properties of the synthetic hydrogels were investigated in details using FTIR techniques. The swelling data indicated that the equilibrium water content depended on the precursor feed ratio. It was found that adding the HEMA into the PEGDA-based hydrogels was very helpful to improve the swelling properties.