Thermo‐responsive polyurethane hydrogels based on poly(ethylene glycol) and poly(caprolactone): Physico‐chemical and mechanical properties

In this work, we present the synthesis and characterization of chemically crosslinked polyurethanes (PU) composed of poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) and poly(caprolactone) diol (PCL‐diol), as hydrophilic and hydrophobic segments respectively, poly(caprolactone) triol (PCL‐triol), to induce hydrolysable crosslinks, and hexamethylene diisocyanate (HDI). The syntheses were performed at 45 °C, resulting in polyurethanes with different PEG/PCL‐diol/PCL‐triol mass fractions. All the PUs are able to crystallize and their thermal properties depend on the global composition. The water uptake capacities of the PU increase as the PEG amount increases. The water into hydrogels is present in different environments, as bounded, bulk and free water. The PU hydrogels are thermo‐responsive, presenting a negative dependence of the water uptake with the temperature for PEG rich networks, which gradually changes to a positive behavior as the amount of poly(caprolactone) (PCL) segments increases. However, the water uptake capacity changes continuously without an abrupt transition. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analyses of the hydrogel morphology after lyophilization revealed a porous structure. Mechanical compression tests revealed that the hydrogels present good resilience and low recovery hysteresis when they are subject to cycles of compression–decompression. In addition, the mechanical properties of the hydrogels varies with the composition and crosslinking density, and therefore with the water uptake capacity. The PU properties can be tuned to fit for different applications, such as biomedical applications. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2016 , 133, 43573.