Polyacrylamide hydrogels. VI. Synthesis-property relation

Synthesis-property relation is fundamental to materials science, but many aspects of the relation are not well understood for many materials. Impetus for this paper comes from our recent appreciation for the distinct roles of entanglements and crosslinks in a polymer network. Here we study the synthesis-property relation of polyacrylamide hydrogels prepared by free radical polymerization. Some of the as-prepared hydrogels are further submerged in water to swell either to equilibrium or to a certain polymer content. The synthesis parameters include the composition of a precursor, as well as the polymer content of a hydrogel. Series of hydrogels are prepared along several paths in the space of synthesis parameters. For each hydrogel, the stress-stretch curve is measured, giving four properties: modulus, strength, stretchability, and work of fracture. We interpret the experimentally measured synthesis-property relation in terms of entropic polymer networks of covalent bonds. When the precursor has a low crosslinker-to-monomer molar ratio, the resulting polymer network has on average long polymer segments. When the precursor has a low water-to-monomer molar ratio, the resulting polymer network has on average many entanglements per polymer segment. We show that crosslinks lower strength, but entanglements do not. By contrast, both crosslinks and entanglements increase modulus. A network of highly entangled long polymer segments exhibits high swell resistance, modulus, and strength.