Gamma ray crosslinked PVA/PVP foams for biomedical applications

In this research, porous polyvinyl alcohol (PVA), polyvinyl alcohol/polyvinyl pyrrolidone (PVP) biomedical foams were fabricated. Air bubbles were entrapped into the polymer solutions during vigorous mixing, then, the solutions were freeze-dried. Gamma-rays induced crosslinking resulted in water-insoluble foams capable of water absorption with desired elasticity. Larger pore size and higher interconnectivity was observed in scanning electron microscopy (SEM) micrographs of the foams with introducing 20 wt% of PVP into the PVA solution. Foams with specific compositions irradiated at the dose of 5 kGy absorbed water up to 10 times of their initial weights. These foams are good candidates for medical applications such as ophthalmic surgical sponges and tissue engineering scaffolds due to their biocompatibility and lack of using toxic chemicals for their fabrication