Preparation, characterization and microhardness study of semi interpenetrating polymer networks of polyvinyl alcohol and crosslinked polyacrylamide.

Semi-IPNs based on polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) and crosslinked polyacrylamide (PAM) were prepared and characterized. Various compositions of semi-interpenetrating polymer networks (semi-IPNs) were prepared by varying concentrations of PVA, acrylamide (AM) and crosslinker N,N'-methylene bis acrylamide (MBA) in the feed mixtures and polymerized using a suitable redox system comprising of potassium persulphate and metabisulphite. The prepared semi-IPNs were characterized by fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) methods. The prepared semi-IPNs were also investigated for microhardness measurements.