Fabrication of polyethylene glycol hydrogels with enhanced swelling; loading capacity and release kinetics

The objective of current study was to fabricate PEG based hydrogels cross linked with monomer i.e. acrylic acid and 2, Acrylamide-2-methyl propane sulfonic acid (AMPS) in aqueous media. N,N'-Methylenebisacrylamide (MBA) was used as cross linker while ammonium per sulfate was added in reaction as initiator. Sodium bicarbonate was used as to create pores in hydrogel making the formulations superporous. Ivabradine hydrochloride as model drug was loaded into prepared hydrogel formulation. FTIR confirmed the compatibility of Polyethylene glycol with acrylic acid and AMPS. Thermal stability of PEG based hydrogels was confirmed by DSC and TGA techniques. Prepared hydrogels showed pH dependent swelling behavior. Presence of AMPS caused excellent swelling of hydrogels due to its polyelectrolyte nature while in case of acrylic acid dense cross linking cause comparatively less swelling of acrylic acid based hydrogels. Sol–gel fraction was determined to find out unreacted and uncross linked portion of each formulation. Invitro release study confirmed controlled release of loaded drug from PEG based polymeric matrices. Release kinetics suggested that drug release from hydrogel matrix followed solvent diffusion swelling mechanism.