Dynamical Modeling and Experimental Analysis on the Swelling Behavior of the sIPN Hydrogels

Abstract

In this article, polyethylene glycol-acrylamide (PEG-AAm) hydrogels were experimentally prepared with a matrix structure and their swelling behaviors were tested. Different amounts of polyethylene glycol, acrylic acid, and acrylamide were added, and an optimum case was discovered. Effect of some parameters on the swelling was then investigated. A dynamic model based on the Maxwell-Stefan equation, Nernst-Planck equation, and Donnan theory was developed to consider the swelling behavior of hydrogels. These equations were applied to model the buffer diffusion inside the hydrogels in the swelling process. COMSOL software was also applied to simulate the swelling behavior in the hydrogels. The results showed that the data obtained from the modeling were in good agreement with the experimental data (the deviation value was around 16%). Further, COMSOL was able to simulate water diffusion process in the hydrogels, properly.

Cyclodextrin Mediated Controlled Release of Naproxen from pH-Sensitive Chitosan/Poly(Vinyl Alcohol) Hydrogels for Colon Targeted Delivery

“…Fully swollen hydrogels have physical properties common to living tissues, including a soft and rubbery consistency and low interfacial tension with water or biological fluids . These properties make a swollen hydrogel very applicable in various areas, such as tissue engineering, chemical engineering, biomedical and biotechnological fields, pharmaceutical industries (controlled drug delivery), and food and agriculture …”

“…1 These properties make a swollen hydrogel very applicable in various areas, such as tissue engineering, chemical engineering, biomedical and biotechnological fields, pharmaceutical industries (controlled drug delivery), and food and agriculture. 2 Biocompatible and biodegradable hydrogels have been designed using natural polymers that are susceptible to enzymatic degradation or using synthetic polymers that possess hydrolyzable moieties. Among the natural polymers, "chitosan" has received a great deal of attention due to its well documented biocompatibility, low toxicity, degradability by human enzymes, membrane permeation enhancing effect, mucoadhesive, antimicrobial, and wound healing properties.…”

AFM Characterization of Elastically Micropatterned Surfaces Fabricated by Fill‐Molding In Capillaries (FIMIC) and Investigation of the Topographical Influence on Cell Adhesion to the Patterns

“…After appropriate time, the gels were taken out from the water, blotted dry with tissue paper and weighed again immediately. The water uptake was determined according to the equation for calculating the swelling degree (SD): where M s is the gel mass after swelling and M d is the dry gel mass 34. Reported results were averages of measurements on three samples.…”

Mathematical modelling of cross-linked polyacrylic-based hydrogels: physical properties and drug delivery

“…For these reasons, commercial software packages are typically used in this case (e.g. COMSOL or ANSYS) [20][21][22], implementing numerical methods aimed at reducing the system dimensions (e.g. finite volumes) [22][23][24].…”

“…As such, they can be considered helpful tools to quickly identify peculiar system behaviours minimizing complexity. Their major strengths are (i) excellent reliability for specific applications, those for which they were tailored; (ii) easy implementation and (iii) quantitative results enabling data analysis at no Usually less detailed than type 1 but still first principle methods, hence also general but at lower degree of complexity (assumptions and empirical laws typically applied while ensuring enough accuracy) Computationally demanding (PDE have to be numerically solved; CFD commercial codes as well as ad hoc numerical methods are applied) [20][21][22][23][24] 3 Semi-empirical relationships tailored for specific cases; not general but versatile, flexible and non-time demanding; especially effective when limited experimental information is available; also useful to drive the experimental design Lack of generality [25][26][27][28][29][30] computational cost. Combined with a reasonable experimental campaign, these correlative models are well established and widely accepted in the literature.…”