The Effect of Monomer Concentration Variation on the Rheological Properties of the Agar-Polyacrylamide Double Network Hydrogel

Abstract

A physically-chemically cross linked combined agar-polyacrylamide double network hydrogel was prepared utilizing one pot method via heating-cooling photo polymerization method. The rheological properties of the prepared gel were investigated by varying the concentration of the Agar, the first network, while keeping the second network, PAM, concentration constant and vice versa. The linear viscoelastic region (LVR) of the sample was determined from amplitude sweep measurements. The order of elastic components was found at least two orders of magnitude more than the viscous components. The gel strength increased with the increase concentration of both the networks.