Development of Novel Superabsorbent Hybrid Hydrogels by E-Beam Crosslinking

In this study, several superabsorbent hybrid hydrogel compositions prepared from xanthan gum (XG)/sodium carboxymethylcellulose (CMC)/graphene oxide (GO) were synthesized by e-beam radiation crosslinking. We studied and evaluated the effects of GO content from the chemical structure of the hydrogels according to: sol-gel analysis, swelling degree, diffusion of water, ATR-FTIR spectroscopy, network structure, and dynamic mechanical analysis. The gel fraction and swelling properties of the prepared hydrogels depended on the polymer compositions and the absorbed dose. The hybrid XGCMCGO hydrogels showed superabsorbent capacity and reached equilibrium in less than 6 h. In particular, the XGCMCGO (70:30) hydrogel reached the highest swelling degree of about 6000%, at an irradiation dose of 15 kGy. The magnitude of the elastic (G') and viscous (G″) moduli were strongly dependent on the absorbed dose. When the degree of crosslinking was higher, the G' parameter was found to exceed 1000 Pa. In the case of the XGCMCGO (80:20) hydrogel compositions, the Mc and ξ parameters decreased with the absorbed dose, while crosslinking density increased, which demonstrated that we obtained a superabsorbent hydrogel with a permanent structure.