Preparation and swelling properties of graphene oxide/poly(acrylic acid-co-acrylamide) super-absorbent hydrogel nanocomposites

A series of novel graphene oxide (GO)/poly(acrylic acid-co-acrylamide) super-absorbent hydrogel nanocomposites were prepared by in situ radical solution polymerization. The effects of GO content on the chemical structure, morphology and miscibility of the hydrogels were studied. The swelling behaviors, swelling kinetics and pH-responsive behaviors of the hydrogels were also evaluated. Owing to the hydrogen bonds and possible covalent bonds between GO and polymer chains, relatively lower content (<0.30 wt%) of GO could be dispersed well in the polymer matrix and enhanced the intermolecular interactions between the components effectively. On the contrary, an excessive amount of GO might form large agglomerates and weakened the interfacial interactions, resulting in the micro-phase separation between the components. Furthermore, the swelling capacities and swelling rates of hydrogels went up with increasing GO loadings to 0.30 wt% and then decreased with further increasing GO loadings. It is worth noting that the hydrogel only containing 0.10 wt% GO exhibited significant improvement of swelling capacity in neutral medium, and could also retain relatively higher swelling capacities to a certain degree at acidic and basic solutions. Therefore, the as-prepared GO-based super-absorbent hydrogels might have potential applications in many areas, such as biomedical engineering, construction engineering and hygienic products.

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► We developed graphene oxide (GO)-based hydrogels by in situ solution polymerization.
► GO could improve the swelling ratio of hydrogels at extremely low GO content.
► The swelling kinetics of composite hydrogels fitted the pseudo-second-order model.
► The composite hydrogels exhibited pH-sensitive behavior.