Optimization of swelling response of pH sensitive hydrogels using Box-Behnken design | doi.page

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Optimization of swelling response of pH sensitive hydrogels using Box-Behnken design

bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory)2018

Fereshteh Shokri, Pouneh Ebrahimi, S Honary

Abstract

Abstract Hydrogels are three-dimensional crosslinked hydrophilic polymer networks capable of swelling or de-swelling reversibly in water and retaining a large volume of liquid in swollen state. Hydrogels can be designed with controllable responses to shrink or expand with changes in external environmental conditions. Among stimulisensitive hydrogels, the pH-sensitive ones are widely-studied and used. Despite these advances, we currently lack a systematic way to optimize the synthesis protocols. Here we propose to use techniques from chemometrics, namely Box–Behnken statistical screening design to optimize the chemical composition of pH-responsive hydrogels for an improved responsiveness as quantified by swelling index. Polymer blends were prepared by mixing different suitable volume of pvp (poly vinyl pyrrolidone) and chitosan aqueous solution in order to obtain a mixture, glutardialdehyde solution was added as crosslinkers to the chitosan/pvp mixture to form semi-IPN(semi-interpenetrating polymeric hydrogel). The pH-dependent swelling properties have been measured and used to obtain a regression model. We characterized the descriptive and predictive abilities of our model. We found a remarkable correlation (correlation coefficient = 0.954) between the observed responses and the responses predicted by the model. Our results demonstrate that Box-Behnken is an appropriate statistical design that can be successfully used in the development of pH-sensitive hydrogels with a predictable swelling ratio. This technology will remarkably reduce the time and cost that is needed for chemical synthesis of hydrogels with a desired pH-sensitivity.

Abstract

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