Preparation and Properties of Iodinated Polymeric Hydrogels

Nasreen A. Mazumdar¹, R. Vardarajan² and H. Singh³

¹Department of Chemistry, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi-110 025 (India) ²Department of Chemistry, Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi-110 016 (India) ³Centre for Biomedical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi-110 016 (India)

Bulk co-polymerization of 2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate, 2-dimethylaminoethyl methacrylate and ethylene glycol dimethacrylate was carried out in presence of different concentrations of iodine solution. Iodine content per polymer sample varied. It was observed that iodine played an important role during polymerization. A critical concentration of iodine was found to catalyse the polymerization reaction while a slightly higher concentration of iodine retarded the reaction. Iodine also acted as a cross-linking agent during the process of polymerization. The swelling behaviour, thermal property and antimicrobial activity of the iodinated copolymer samples were studied. The results showed that iodinated polymeric hydrogels possessed antibacterial activity against E. coli and Staph. aureus.

Iodinated polymeric hydrogels; Copolymerisation; Antimicrobial activity