Relationship between structure and viscoelastic properties of reactive polyelectrolyte hydrogels

abstract

English

The present contribution is focused on in-depth characterization of structural and mechanical properties of reactive hydrogels. For purposes of this work, hydrogels based on thermoreversible biopolymer agarose were selected. The biggest advantages of the application of agarose hydrogel can be found in its simple and reproducible preparation procedure. Moreover, during the preparation of agarose hydrogels, different additional solutes/polyelectrolytes can be simply incorporated in the sample. This provides easy and simple method for modification of the final properties of studied hydrogels. In experimental part of present work different polyelectrolytes (sodium alginate, hyaluronic acid, carrageenan, sodium polystyrene sulphate, dextran, chitosan, L-lysine etc.) were selected as the modifiers of agarose hydrogel. The experimental works of present contribution can be separated on the study of two basic phenomena. Firstly, the influence of incorporation of polyelectrolytes on the structural features of hydrogels was investigated. For these purposes the basic physico-chemical methods of hydrogel characterisation were used (e.g. water content, inner pH etc.). The second part of the work was dealing with the in-depth research on viscoelastic properties of studied reactive agarose hydrogels. At this stage of work, combination of rheological experiments on macroscopic (macrorheological oscillatory tests) as well as on microscopic scale (DLS and FCS microrheology, observing of the movement of tracer polystyrene latex particles in samples) were used. The results of the work are indicating that the polyelectrolytes added into hydrogels at studied concentration ranges are not significantly influencing final structural and overall macroscopic viscoelastic properties of agarose hydrogels. On the other side, from the microscopic point of view, the transport of tracer particles in individual agarose hydrogels are partly influenced indicating changes of microscopic viscoelastic properties in the respect to the concentration and type of used polyelectrolyte. The results of present work in connection with deep meta-analysis of literature can contribute to further applied research and development in the area of hydrogels and carrier materials based on different biopolymers and polyelectrolytes complexes.

agarose ; hydrogel ; rheology ; viscoelastic properties ; tracer particles

KALINA, M.; SMILEK, J.; LAŠTŮVKOVÁ, M.; SEDLÁČEK, P.

5. 7. 2017

Toulouse, Francie

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