Grafting of hydrophilic monomers onto cellulosic polymers for medical applications

Cellulose is the substance that makes up most of a plant’s cell walls. Due to the many hydroxyl groups along the backbone, cellulose is practically insoluble in common organic solvents, as well as in water, although it has highly hydrophilic nature. This property leads to poor dimensional stability, lack of thermoplasticity, and lack of antimicrobial properties. Surface properties of cellulosic polymers can be controlled, improved, and/or modified by grafting synthetic polymer chains onto the surface. The grafted side chains are hydrophilic in nature and are either cationic, anionic, or nonionic. These can be prepared by directly grafting such monomers as acrylic acid, or by grafting monomers such as acrylonitrile and hydrolyzing to acrylic acid and its salts. The resultant material can be used for some medical purposes such as controlled drug delivery, elimination of body water for eudemea observed in some diseases, personal hygiene products, platelet adhesion, and tissue scaffolds.