Facile one pot synthesis of strong epoxy/agar hybrid hydrogels

Epoxy biopolymer hybrid hydrogels have excellent potential for load bearing applications, despite limited studies in this area. In this paper, a facile one-pot synthesis of epoxy/agar hybrid hydrogels has been reported. Infrared spectroscopy, rheometry, thermal, mechanical properties and immersion studies have been reported. An advantage of the hydrogels synthesized here is that they can be prepared in a shorter timeframe than conventional epoxy biopolymer hydrogels. Diethylene triamine was used as the cross-linker which induces gelation within five minutes at 90 °C. The mechanical properties of epoxy hydrogels prepared using diethylene triamine are found to be comparable to that of hydrogels prepared using long chain amine terminated poloxamers. The compressive toughness of the hybrid hydrogels increases by ~380% via the addition of 3 wt% agar in comparison with epoxy hydrogels. These hybrid hydrogels are elastic and biodegradable.