Molecular dynamic simulations of the water absorbency of hydrogels

A polymer gel can imbibe solvent molecules through surface tension effect. When the solvent happens to be water, the gel can swell to a large extent and forms an aggregate called hydrogel. The large deformation caused by such swelling makes it difficult to study the behaviors of hydrogels. Currently, few molecular dynamic simulation works have been reported on the water absorbing mechanism of hydrogels. In this paper, we first use molecular dynamic simulation to study the water absorbing mechanism of hydrogels and propose a hydrogel-water interface model to study the water absorbency of the hydrogel surface. Also, the saturated water content and volume expansion rate of the hydrogel are investigated by building a hydrogel model with different cross-linking degree and by comparing the water absorption curves under different temperatures. The sample hydrogel model used consists of Polyethylene glycol diglycidyl ether (PEGDGE) as epoxy and the Jeffamine, poly-oxy-alkylene-amines, as curing agent. The conclusions obtained are useful for further investigation on PEGDGE/Jeffamine hydrogel. Moreover, the simulation methods, including hydrogel-water interface modeling, we first propose are also suitable to study the water absorbing mechanism of other hydrogels.