Macro- and Microscale Approach in the Study on Transport Properties of Reactive Agarose Hydrogels

conference paper

English

Hydrogels represent nowadays important material either from scientific point of view, as well as from the view of possible applications. This contribution is focused on the study of transport properties of reactive hydrogels based on biopolymer agarose. This polysaccharide can at certain conditions form hydrogel matrix. This non-reactive hydrogel can represent ideal carrier matrix for additional substances (e.g. polyelectrolytes). Incorporation of specific modifiers allows tuning the final properties (e.g. reactivity) of these hydrogel in respect to the needs of the application. In present contribution, we have focused on modification of reactivity of agarose hydrogels through incorporation of sodium alginate, hyaluronic acid, carrageenan, sodium polystyrene sulfonate, dextran and chitosan. In experimental works, Rhodamine 6G was selected as a probe, whose transport was observed and quantified. Moreover, the results from diffusion experiments were correlated with several basic structural characteristics of individual studied hydrogels (internal pH value, content of water, wettability…) as well as their mechanical properties (mainly from rheological characterization). Two basic approaches in the study on transport properties of individual hydrogels were used in experimental part of this work (both based on diffusion processes). The first method was based on the simple macroscopic study on diffusion of Rhodamine 6G from solution into cuvettes containing individual agarose-based reactive hydrogels (diffusion model of constant source). The second used technique was based on Rhodamine 6G self-diffusion measurement (method of fluorescence correlation spectroscopy). Both used methods showed to be valuable in deeper description and characterization of the interactions and mobility of selected probe in reactive agarose-based hydrogel matrices. The results of our work are indicating that the transport and barrier properties of individual agarose-based reactive hydrogels are significantly affected by charge of the polyelectrolyte, which is incorporated in hydrogels matrix, as well as by its charge density.

diffusion, fluorescence correlation spectroscopy, hydrogels, polyelectrolyte, reactivity

KALINA, M.; SMILEK, J.; ADAMCOVÁ, Z.; BÍLKOVÁ, K.; SEDLÁČEK, P.

18. 10. 2017

Tanger Ltd.

Ostrava

978-80-87294-81-9

Nanocon 2017 - Conference Proceedings

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