Optimization of Synthesis Amounts of Polymers with Two Monomers by Different Methods Based on Response Surface Methodology

Abstract

To synthesize a monolithic polymer with two different monomers, 17-run Box-Behnken design (BBD) and 20-run central composite design (CCD) were investigated and optimized three factors (volume of monomer, cross-link, and porogen). According to the variance of the fitted quadratic polynomial model, BBD was more suitable for the two monomers than CCD. The adjusted coefficient of determination (R Adj 2 ) for the model (0.995 and 0.997 for the two monomers) as well as the probability (p < 0.0001) revealed high significance of the regression model. The following optimized synthesis conditions were suggested by the BBD method (0.54 mL of monomer, 2.93 mL of cross-link, and 2.95 mL of porogen for methyl methacrylate (MAA); 0.55 mL of monomer, 2.98 mL of cross-link, and 2.86 mL of porogen for 2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate (2-HEMA)). Finally, 5137.6 and 4789.9 mg of MAA and 2-HEMA monomers were predicted, respectively. C