Novel polyacrylamide-based hydrogels containing 3-(trimethoxysilyl)propyl methacrylate and/or tetraethoxy silane were synthesized by means of frontal polymerization, using ammonium persulfate as initiator, N,N-methylene bisacrylamide as crosslinking agent and dimethyl sulfoxide as solvent. The obtained samples were treated at pH of 2 or 5 to induce the sol-gel reaction and evaluate their swelling behavior in the conditions. The occurrence of this reaction was assessed by solid-state NMR. Moreover, the thermal properties of the dry materials were studied by differential scanning calorimetry and thermal gravimetric analysis, and their water-contact angles were measured. It was found that the amount of Si affects the extent of swelling and the hydrophilicity of the resulting materials. (c) 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part A: Polym. Chem. 2013, 51, 4618-4625