Preparation, assessment, and swelling study of amphiphilic acrylic acid/chitosan-based semi-interpenetrating hydrogels.

The aim of this study was to synthesize amphiphilic semi-IPN hydrogels based on acrylic acid (AA) and chitosan (CS) using AIBN as an initiator and N,N'methylene bis acrylamide as a crosslinking agent. The swelling behavior of the hydrogels was evaluated at a variety of pH values, temperature, the salinity of media and time, and the swelling mechanism was investigated using Fickian diffusion and Schott's 2nd-order-kinetics models. FTIR spectroscopy was used to confirm the synthesis of AA/CS hydrogel.