Synthesis of novel semi-interpenetrating poly(acrylic acid) (PAA)/gum arabic (AG)/ZnO hydrogels by in situ free radical polymerization was optimized using response surface methodology (RSM). The reaction variables were the molar ratio of the cross-linking agent (X₁), the weight percentage of gum arabic (AG) (X₂) as the reaction medium, and the amount of ZnO (X₃), each of which was considered at five levels. The evaluated responses in RSM based on the central composite design (CCD) were the formation of samples (Y₁), swelling ratio (Y₂), conversion (Y₃), and percentage of networking (Y₄). Zinc oxide particles (ZnO) were prepared through a cost-effective and safe method based on the mixing of zinc acetate solution, ammonia solution, and sodium hydroxide into a microwave oven. The synthesized ZnO particles and prepared semi-interpenetrating polymer network (semi-IPNs) were evaluated by energy dispersive X-ray analyzer (EDX) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM), respectively. Synthesized samples based on RSM showed that hydrogels with less than 0.75 g of gum do not have suitable desirability. Also, the confirmation of the appropriate amount of cross-linking agent in hydrogels is between 10 and 16 (mol %), and more than this amount, the desirability of the responses decreases sharply. The results showed that increasing the amount of GA, as a biological macromolecule, significantly improves hydrogel formation, swelling rate, conversion, and networking of semi-IPNs which for the sample proposed by RSM were 1, 245%, 86%, and 94.5%, respectively.

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中文翻译：

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聚丙烯酸/阿拉伯胶/ ZnO半IPN水凝胶：响应面法的合成，表征及其优化

使用响应表面方法（RSM）优化了通过原位自由基聚合合成新型半互穿聚丙烯酸（PAA）/阿拉伯胶（AG）/ ZnO水凝胶的方法。反应变量是交联剂的摩尔比（X ₁），作为反应介质的阿拉伯树胶（AG）的重量百分比（X ₂）和ZnO的量（X ₃），分别为从五个层面考虑。基于中央复合设计（CCD）的RSM中评估的响应是样品的形成（Y ₁），溶胀率（Y ₂），转化率（Y ₃）和网络百分比（Y _4））。通过将乙酸锌溶液，氨溶液和氢氧化钠混合到微波炉中，通过经济高效且安全的方法制备氧化锌颗粒（ZnO）。分别通过能量色散X射线分析仪（EDX）和扫描电子显微镜（SEM）对合成的ZnO颗粒和制备的半互穿聚合物网络（semi-IPNs）进行了评估。基于RSM的合成样品显示，胶量少于0.75 g的水凝胶不适合使用。另外，确认水凝胶中的交联剂的适当量为10〜16（摩尔％），如果超过该量，则反应的必要性急剧降低。结果表明，作为一种生物大分子，增加GA的量可显着改善水凝胶的形成，溶胀率，

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