Macroporous polymeric hydrogels formed from acrylate modified polyvinyl alcohol macromers

Macroporous polymeric hydrogels for the last several years have found broad application in areas connected with medicine, especially in such new disciplines as cell and tissue engineering. In present work a novel combine approach is proposed for preparation of polyvinyl alcohol macroporous hydrogels by cross-linking of polyvinyl alcohol acrylic derivatives in the presence of heterophase of frozen aqueous media. Hydrogels prepared using this method does not need additional structure fixing and are characterized by high thermal stability in swollen state sustaining even heating to more than 100 °С. The influence of different factors and reaction conditions on the cross-linked hydrogel formation process was studied. The high yield of products (80 ÷ 95%) was observed when reaction was conducted at temperature range −12 ÷ −18 °С, concentration of macromer 4–12 weight %, and amount of initiator 0.8 ÷ 1.6 mg/ml. Moreover, the equilibrium swelling of synthesized macroporous hydrogels was investigated and it was shown that synthesized cross-linked hydrogels are characterized by high water absorption which is weakly depended on solution pH and ionic force values.