Nowadays, there is a widespread usage of sodium periodate as an oxidant for synthesizing gelatin-tannin hydrogels. The impact of iodine compounds could have a harmful effect on human health. The study focuses on the proposal of alternative oxidizing systems for tannin oxidation. Gelatin-tannin hydrogels were obtained based on the usage of H2O2/DMSO/KMnO4/KIO4 oxidants and characterized with sorption, thermal (TGA, DTG, DSC), mechanical, FTIR and other methods. The sorption experiments were carried out in a phosphate buffer (pH = 5.8/7.4/9) and distilled water and were investigated with Fick's law and pseudosecond order equation. The pH dependence of materials in acid media indicates the possibility of further usage as stimuli-responsive systems for drug delivery. Thermal transitions demonstrate the variation of structure with melting (306 ÷ 319 °C) and glass transition temperatures (261 ÷ 301 °C). The activation energy of water evaporation was calculated by isoconversional methods (Kissinger-Akahira-Sunose, Flynn-Wall-Ozawa) ranging from 4 ÷ 18 to 14 ÷ 38 kJ/mole and model-fitting (Coats-Redfern, Kennedy-Clark) methods at 24.7 ÷ 45.3 kJ/mole, indicating the smooth growth of values with extent of conversion. The network parameters of the hydrogels were established by modified Flory-Rehner and rubber elasticity theories, which demonstrated differences in values (5.96 ÷ 21.27·10-3 mol/cm3), suggesting the limitations of theories. The sorption capacity, tensile strength and permeability for water/oxygen indicate that these materials may find their application in field of biomaterials.
Keywords: crosslinking density; gelatin; hydrogel; sorption; tannin; thermal analysis.