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Formation of defined microporous 3D structures starting from cross‐linked hydrogels
Author(s) -
Barbucci Rolando,
Leone Gemma
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
journal of biomedical materials research part b: applied biomaterials
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.665
H-Index - 108
eISSN - 1552-4981
pISSN - 1552-4973
DOI - 10.1002/jbm.b.20005
Subject(s) - self healing hydrogels , microporous material , materials science , porosity , scanning electron microscope , chemical engineering , fourier transform infrared spectroscopy , morphology (biology) , composite material , polymer chemistry , biology , engineering , genetics
A new and simple technique was developed to obtain polysaccharide (hyaluronane, alginate and carboxymethylcellulose) ‐based hydrogels with a defined porous morphology. The technique consists of stratifying a cross‐linked hydrogel on a filter with known pore diameter. CO 2 bubbles, produced by the addition of HCl to a porogen salt NaHCO 3 , are forced to pass through the filter, and they induce the hydrogel to assume a porous morphology. The presence and distribution of pores was confirmed by scanning‐electron microscopy (SEM). A strict correspondence was found between the porosity of the filter and the pore diameter in the hydrogels. Water uptake measurements showed a decreased amount of water taken up by the porous hydrogels compared with the native hydrogels, due to a compacting of the material. An explanation of the porous material properties of Hyal hydrogel was given on the basis of FTIR spectra. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part B: Appl Biomater 68B: 117–126, 2004