The rheological and thermal characteristics of freeze-thawed hydrogels containing hydrogen peroxide for potential wound healing applications

The current study involves the development of a hydrogel carrier for a H₂O₂ delivery system. In this work poly (vinyl alcohol) (PVA) and poly (acrylic acid) (PAA) based hydrogels were prepared, and their mechanical and physical properties examined. The novel aspect of this research is the differing functionality created by varying the concentration of H₂O₂. The mechanical and thermal properties were determined by parallel plate rheometry and modulated differential scanning calorimetry (MDSC) respectively. The results indicated that the hydrogels containing H₂O₂ are significantly weaker than those synthesised using water alone at test temperatures of 30 and 45 ^{{ring operator}}C. MDSC analysis suggested that thermal transitions occur at temperatures that may make these hydrogels useful as temperature sensitive drug delivery systems. The chemical structure of the hydrogels was confirmed by means of attenuated total reflectance Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR), while swelling experiments in distilled water indicate that the swelling of the gels is temperature dependent.