HYDROPHILIC SILICONE COMPOSITE AND METHOD FOR PRODUCING IT

摘要

The invention proposes a hydrophilic silicone composite useful as biomaterial, and a method of producing it. The hydrophilic silicone composite comprises a continuous matrix made of a crosslinked silicone polymer and contains from 10 to 150 parts by weight of a powdered hydrogel filler per 100 parts of such crosslinked silicone polymer. The hydrogel filler has a particle size of from 10-6 to 10-1 mm, and is formed of particles of polymeric hydrogel made from physically or chemically crosslinked polymers or copolymers of glycol monomethacrylate polyol monomethacrylate or dihydroxyether monomethacrylate, amides of methacrylic or acrylic acid or their N-monosubstituted and N,N-disubstituted derivatives, or from a multiblock copolymer of acrylonitrile with acrylamide or acrylic acid. The strength of this composite in dry from is substantially higher than the strength of the same hydrogel alone. Its swelling in water and other solvents such as ethanol or ethylene glycolmonomethylether is much higher than would correspond to the content of hydrogel in the composite, and the lowering of its tensile strength by addition of swollen hydrogel is substantially less than would correspond to the silicone polymer in the composite. Moreover, the nonswollen composite has a strikingly high shape memory at temperatures above Tg.