Highly absorbent hydrogels comprised from interpenetrated networks of alginate-polyurethane for biomedical applications.

Developing new approaches to improve the swelling, degradation rate, and mechanical properties of alginate hydrogels without compromising their biocompatibility for biomedical applications represents a potential area of research. In this work, the generation of interpenetrated networks (IPN) comprised from alginate-polyurethane in an aqueous medium is proposed to design hydrogels with tailored properties for biomedical applications. Aqueous polyurethane (PU) dispersions can crosslink and interpenetrate alginate chains, forming amide bonds that allow the structure and water absorption capacity of these novel hydrogels to be regulated.