Synthesis of hemicellulose hydrogels with tunable conductivity and swelling behavior through facile one-pot reaction

The conductive hemicellulose hydrogels (CHHs) were achieved by incorporating carboxyl terminated aniline pentamer (CTAP) into the hydrophilic xylan-rich hemicellulose networks with epichlorohydrin. CHHs were obtained by facile one-pot reaction in water at ambient temperature. The successful synthesis of CTAP was confirmed by FT-IR, ¹H NMR, and UV-vis spectra. All the hydrogels reached their equilibrium-swollen state within 12 h. The morphology and the thermal stability of CHHs were adjusted by the addition of CTAP. The conductivities of CHHs could also be tuned from 8.92 × 10^-5 to 2.11 × 10^-3 S/m by adding the blending amounts of the CTAP from 0 to 50% mass ratio while simultaneously altering the equilibrium swelling ratio from 28.1 to 15.8. CHHs showed homogeneous porous structure, tunable swelling behavior, controllable conductivity, and good thermal stability. These results highlight that CHHs are attractive candidates to be used in biomedical applications.