N,N'-methylenebisacrylamide (BIS) is a very popular cross-linker for the radical polymerisation in water. It is highly reactive but prone to alkaline hydrolysis and suffers from a low solubility. This study shows that with slow polymerising systems such as N,N-diallyldimethylammonium chloride, only inhomogeneous networks are formed. As a consequence, gels with very low cross-linking densities, i.e., high swelling capacities, disintegrate during the swelling test and firm, coherent gels are not accessible due to the solubility limit. A promising alternative are multivalent tetraallyl-based compounds, of which tetraallylammonium bromide (TAAB), N,N,N',N'-tetraallylpiperazinium dibromide (TAPB) and N,N,N',N'-tetraallyltrimethylene dipiperidine dibromide (TAMPB) are the subject of this study. With these, the cross-linking polymerisation appears to be statistical, as gels formed at low monomer conversion have essentially the same swelling properties as those formed at high conversions. This is not observed with BIS. However, gelation with the tetraallyl cross-linkers is much slower than with BIS and follows the order TAPB < TAMPB < TAAB, but the differences become significantly smaller with increasing content. At low contents, all three allow the preparation of gels with high swelling capacities of up to 360 g/g.
Keywords: DADMAC; copolymer; gelation; hydrogel; reactivity ratios; synthesis.