Hydrogel formation by photocrosslinking of dimethylmaleimide functionalized polyacrylamide

The network formation was investigated macroscopically by rheology and microscopically by multiple-quantum NMR experiments. The results clearly indicate that the formation of active network strands occurs in proportion with DMMI conversion. The crosslinking efficiency varies markedly with concentration, but is surprisingly high (>60% at 80 g L−1), while the length of the network chains seems to be independent of concentration.