Hydrogels Based on Polyvinylpyrrolidone Copolymers

The role of polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) complex formation with water-soluble 2-hydroxyalkyl methacrylates is described. The impact of the complexation on both the polymerization kinetics and the formation of a copolymer structure initiated by radical initiators has been studied. The activating effect of iron(II) and iron(III) sulfates has been revealed for the initiator-free polymerization of the formulation. An analytical approach to determining the molecular weight of the chain fragments located between two neighboring crosslinking nodes in the polymer network (Mn) has been developed depending on the values of the stability constant (Кst) for the charge-transfer complexes. The basic regularities of hydrogels obtaining based on PVP copolymers with high sorption capacity and diffusion characteristics are presented. The main directions of practical application of synthesized hydrogels are considered.