Outer layer having entanglement of hydrophobic polymer host and hydrophilic polymer guest

Abstract

An outer layer having an entanglement comprising an intermingling of cloaked hydrophilic guest and a hydrophobic polymer host, wherein molecules of the guest have been crosslinked with each other. Under certain circumstances, using complexes of the guest may be desirable or even necessary. The intermingling of the guest and host includes a physical tangling, whether it also comprises crosslinking by primary bonding (e.g., chemical/covalent bonding) there-between. Also a method of producing an outer layer having such an entanglement, including the steps of: temporarily cloaking at least a portion of the hydrophilic groups of the guest; intermingling at least a portion of the cloaked groups with a porous polymeric structure by diffusing the guest with cloaked groups into at least a portion of the structure's pores; within the pores, crosslinking at least a portion of the molecules of the guest with the guest; and removing the cloaking. Cloaking may be performed by silylation or acylation. Intermingling may be performed by producing a mixture of guest and host (whether in solution, powdered, granular, etc., form); next, a crosslinking of the guest with itself is performed; then, the mixture is molded into the outer layer.