Polyacrylic acid is a thickener with water retention properties, an anionic synthetic polyelectrolyte.

It is used :

• in diapers to absorb the liquid. Superabsorbent sodium polyacrylate diapers retain large amounts of liquids and are mainly composed of polyacrylic acid.
• in the restoration
• in detergents
• in the medical field in various immunological and pharmaceutical applications
• in veterinary as adjuvant in vaccines

Dentin

This study tested whether treatment of demineralized dentin with polyacrylic acid (PAA) has any activatory or inhibitory activity on dentin matrix metalloproteinases (MMP)s or cathepsin K (CAT-K). Demineralized dentin treated with 10% polyacrylic acid activated CAT-K more than 37% phosphoric acid; 2% chlorhexidine digluconate seems to be a better inhibitor of MMPs and CAT-K than 2% benzalkonium chloride (1).

Drug delivery

Bioadhesiviness of polyacrylic acid polymers make them promising hydrogels to design topical drug delivery systems, allowing a close contact with biological substrate as well as an enhanced local concentration gradient, both factors that may improve the biological performance of the drugs. The set of results demonstrated that these hydrogels are promising to be used as topical controlled drug delivery system (2).

Molecular Formula  : C₃H₄O₂

Molecular Weight : 72,063

CAS : 9063-87-0

Synonyms :

• Acrylic acid
• Acido acrilico
• 2-Propenoic acid
• Acroleic acid
• Carbomer

References__________________________

(1) Effect of polyacrylic acid on dentin protease activities.  Ozcan S, Seseogullari-Dirihan R, Uctasli M, Tay FR, Pashley DH, Tezvergil-Mutluay A.  Dent Mater. 2015 Aug;31(8):901-6. doi: 10.1016/j.dental.2015.04.018. Epub 2015 May 21.

(2) Polyacrylic acid polymers hydrogels intended to topical drug delivery: preparation and characterization  Calixto G, Yoshii AC, Rocha e Silva H, Stringhetti Ferreira Cury B, Chorilli M.  Pharm Dev Technol. 2015 Jun;20(4):490-6. doi: 10.3109/10837450.2014.882941. Epub 2014 Feb 7.