The Polymer Society of Korea

Abstract

Hydrogels are essential in biomedical and wearable technologies, but conventional water-based systems suffer from limited thermal stability, high vapor pressure, and brittleness. This study aims to develop tough glycol-based gels using 1,3-butanediol—a biocompatible solvent with low freezing point and high boiling point. Initial tests with 6 M acrylamide gels yielded brittle materials, as the polymer chains interact more strongly with each other than with the glycol solvent, resulting in high glass transition temperature (~120 °C) and limited flexibility. To address this, dimethylacrylamide was introduced as a comonomer. The monomer ratio was optimized at constant total concentration, followed by variations in overall monomer and crosslinker content. Mechanical and thermal properties were evaluated using tensile testing and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), offering insights into the design of durable glycol gels for advanced biomedical and structural application.