Synthesis and characterisation of high resilience collagen-polyacrylamide semi-interpenetrating network hydrogel

Collagen-polyacrylamide (Collagen-PAm) semi-interpenetrating network composite hydrogels were prepared by in-situ free radical polymerization. This collagen - polyacrylamide hydrogel has good tensile and compression repair properties, collagen can improve the mechanical properties of PAm. Composite hydrogels have regular pore structure. Collagen/polyacrylamide (g/g) ratio of 6.0:100 hydrogel pore size range 75–95 µm, conducive to cell migration and growth. The study of swelling kinetics showed that the water diffusion in hydrogel was Fick diffusion, which was beneficial to the fixation of cells and drugs. The pH sensitivity study showed that complex hydrogels have good environmental stability under acidic, neutral and weakly alkaline conditions. The addition of collagen can improve the thermal stability of the composite hydrogel because of the strong hydrogen bond between collagen and polyacrylamide in the semi-interpenetrating network. DMA results show that the E ' of Collagen-PAm is 6 ~ 8KPa, E 'of Collagen-PAm is 12 ~ 35KPa, which is 2–4 times higher than PAm, and the deformation reversibility and formability are good. Therefore, as a new tissue engineering material, collagen-polyacrylamide composite hydrogel has a good application prospect.