From revealing relationship between structure and performance of hydrogels to development of gels with tailored material properties

abstract

English

Hydrogels with hybrid polymer networks are astonishing materials with high utility potential in a wide variety of applications due to their unique material properties that may mimic the properties of, for example, soft biological tissues. Although at first sight it may seem that all possibilities for further research have been exhausted, this is not entirely true. Some of the biggest challenges we face include lack of mechanical strength in the swollen state, structural degradation over time, or rapid release of compounds due to degradation. These are the most important knowledge gaps in hydrogel research. In our work, we have focused on solving these prominent problems. Based on unique analytical methodology developed in our research group, it was possible to characterized the essential properties of these materials from a macroscopic as well as a microscopic point of view (1). In this poster, we demonstrate several of our achievements. In the first part, we dealt with the optimization of analytical methods for the characterization of material properties of hydrogels in relation to their dynamic nature. In the field of rheology, we dealt with the differences between macro and micro rheology in terms of the evaluation of mechanical properties in relation to the internal structure. In addition, we have long been involved in diffusion measurements, which enrich our insight into the interactions with the formed network. In the main part, we demonstrate the develompent of hydrogels with modifiable mechanical, structural or controlled release systems. The solution to this problem was achieved by suitable combination of different materials, either natural (agarose, alginate, PSS, etc.) or synthetic in nature (PEG), and above all by a suitable method for their formation. In general, we focused on the development of the formation of semiIPNs that showed an improvement in the desired properties. We strongly believe that our experiental approaches will lead to original concepts and developed hydrogel systems with the potential to easily tailor key properties relevant to specific applications. (1) M. Trudičová, Polymers, 12, 1-25 (2020).

hydrogels, semiIPS, hybrid networks

ZAHRÁDKA, J.; TRUDIČOVÁ, M.; SEDLÁČEK, P.; SMILEK, J.; PEKAŘ, M.

4. 9. 2023

ISMC2023

Osaka, Japonsko

256

256

1

https://ismc2021.jp/program.html