title: Modeling of the reticulation kinetics of alginate/pluronic blends for biomedical applications.
abstract: In this work, blends of alginate/pluronic (F127) for biomedical applications were investigated. In particular, the kinetics of alginate chain reticulation by bivalent cations was studied by experimental and modeling approaches. Two kinds of sodium alginate were tested to obtain hard gel films. The thicknesses of the reticulated alginate films were measured as function of the exposure time and of the reticulating copper (Cu(2+)) solution concentration. The kinetics was described by a proper model able to reproduce the experimental data. The model parameters, evaluated based on the measurements of thicknesses as function of Cu(2+) concentration and exposure time, were further validated by comparing the prediction of the model with another set of independent measurement; here, the depletion of Cu(2+) ions in the conditioning solution above the reacting gel is measured as function of time. The tuned model could be used in the description of the future applications of the blends.
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Farmacia, Università degli Studi di Salerno, Via Giovanni Paolo II 132, Fisciano, SA 84084, Italy.
authors.forename: Anna A
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Barba
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Ingegneria Industriale, Università degli Studi di Salerno, Via Giovanni Paolo II 132, Fisciano, SA 84084, Italy. Electronic address: glamberti@unisa.it.
authors.forename: Gaetano
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Lamberti
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Ingegneria Industriale, Università degli Studi di Salerno, Via Giovanni Paolo II 132, Fisciano, SA 84084, Italy.
authors.forename: Luca
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Rabbia
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento dei Materiali e delle Risorse Naturali, Università degli Studi di Trieste, P. le Europa 1, Trieste 34127, Italy.
authors.forename: Mario
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Grassi
authors.affiliation: Istituto per i Materiali Compositi e Biomedici, CNR, Piazzale Vincenzo Tecchio 80, 80125 Napoli, NA, Italy.
authors.forename: Domenico
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Larobina
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Scienze della Vita, Università degli Studi di Trieste, Via Giorgeri 1, Trieste 34127, Italy.
authors.forename: Gabriele
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Grassi
mesh_terms: D000464:Alginates / Q000737:chemistry*; D001672:Biocompatible Materials / Q000737:chemistry*; D003300:Copper / Q000737:chemistry; D005782:Gels / Q000737:chemistry; D020723:Glucuronic Acid / Q000737:chemistry; D006603:Hexuronic Acids / Q000737:chemistry; D007477:Ions / Q000737:chemistry; D007700:Kinetics; D008956:Models, Chemical; D020442:Poloxamer / Q000737:chemistry*; D013816:Thermodynamics
chemical_list: D000464:Alginates; D001672:Biocompatible Materials; D005782:Gels; D006603:Hexuronic Acids; D007477:Ions; D020442:Poloxamer; D003300:Copper; D020723:Glucuronic Acid
keywords: Alginate; Modeling; Pluronic; Reticulation