Preparation and application of poly (hydroxyl ethyl methacrylate) nanocomposite hydrogels containing iron oxide nanoparticles as wound dressing

In recent years, polymeric hydrogels are widespread in the field of biological materials such as wound dressing and wound care. In this work, we report for the first time the preparation and application of pHEMA nanocomposite hydrogels containing iron oxide nanoparticles as wound dressings. For this purpose, nanocomposite hydrogels based on poly (hydroxyl ethyl methacrylate) (pHEMA) and various amounts of 5, 10, and 15 wt% iron oxide nanoparticles were successfully prepared via radical polymerization. The structure and morphology of nanocomposite hydrogels were determined by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and field emission scanning electron microscope (FE-SEM), respectively. The results of gel fraction and the degree of swelling of hydrogels demonstrated that the gel percentage of pHEMA increased, and the degree of swelling decreased with increasing the percentage of nanoparticles. The WVRT and the porosity of hydrogels decreased by increasing the quantity of nanoparticles and were suitable for wound dressing applications. The effect of iron oxide nanoparticles on the mechanical properties of nanocomposite hydrogels was also studied using compression test and hardness shore A durometer. The results indicated that the compression strength, modulus, strain, and hardness are steadily increasing compared to pure hydrogel by adding nanoparticles. The maximum increase was obtained for a hydrogel sample with 15 wt% iron oxide nanoparticles. Antibacterial properties and biocompatibility were determined by the disk-diffusion and MTT assay methods, respectively. Based on the results, nanocomposite hydrogels exhibited higher percentages of cell survival and better antibacterial properties compared to pure pHEMA.