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Solute Transport Dependence on 3D Geometry of Hydrogel Networks
Author(s) -
Richbourg Nathan R.,
Ravikumar Akhila,
Peppas Nicholas A.
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
macromolecular chemistry and physics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.57
H-Index - 112
eISSN - 1521-3935
pISSN - 1022-1352
DOI - 10.1002/macp.202100138
Subject(s) - self healing hydrogels , radius , drug delivery , tissue engineering , materials science , process (computing) , nanotechnology , chemical engineering , computer science , polymer chemistry , biomedical engineering , engineering , computer security , operating system
Hydrogels are used in drug delivery applications, chromatography, and tissue engineering to control the rate of solute transport based on solute size and hydrogel‐solute affinity. Ongoing modeling efforts to quantify the relationship between hydrogel properties, solute properties, and solute transport contribute toward an increasingly efficient hydrogel design process and provide fundamental insight into the mechanisms relating hydrogel structure and function. However, here previous conclusions regarding the use of mesh size in hydrogel transport models are clarified. 3D geometry and hydrogel network visualizations are used to show that mesh size and junction functionality both contribute to the mesh radius, which determines whether a solute can diffuse within a hydrogel. Using mesh radius instead of mesh size to model solute transport in hydrogels will correct junction functionality‐dependent modeling errors, improving hydrogel design predictions and clarifying mechanisms of solute transport in hydrogels.