Ionotropic Gelation Fronts in Sodium Carboxymethyl Cellulose for Hydrogel Particle Formation

Sharratt, William N.; Lopez, Carlos G.; Sarkis, Miriam; Tyagi, Gunjan; O’Connell, Róisín; Rogers, Sarah E.; Cabral, João T.

doi:10.3390/gels7020044

Open AccessEditor’s ChoiceArticle

Ionotropic Gelation Fronts in Sodium Carboxymethyl Cellulose for Hydrogel Particle Formation

by

William N. Sharratt

^1,*

,

Carlos G. Lopez

²

,

Miriam Sarkis

¹

,

Gunjan Tyagi

¹

,

Róisín O’Connell

¹

,

Sarah E. Rogers

³

and

João T. Cabral

^1,*

¹

Department of Chemical Engineering, Imperial College London, London SW7 2AZ, UK

²

Institute of Physical Chemistry, RWTH Aachen University, Landoltweg 2, 52056 Aachen, Germany

³

ISIS, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Harwell, Didcot OX11 0QX, UK

^*

Authors to whom correspondence should be addressed.

Gels 2021, 7(2), 44; https://doi.org/10.3390/gels7020044

Submission received: 22 March 2021 / Revised: 6 April 2021 / Accepted: 8 April 2021 / Published: 12 April 2021

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Polyelectrolyte Gels: Volume II)

Download

Browse Figures

Versions Notes

Abstract

Hydrogel microparticles (HMPs) find numerous practical applications, ranging from drug delivery to tissue engineering. Designing HMPs from the molecular to macroscopic scales is required to exploit their full potential as functional materials. Here, we explore the gelation of sodium carboxymethyl cellulose (NaCMC), a model anionic polyelectrolyte, with Fe³⁺ cations in water. Gelation front kinetics are first established using 1D microfluidic experiments, and effective diffusive coefficients are found to increase with Fe³⁺ concentration and decrease with NaCMC concentrations. We use Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) to elucidate the Fe³⁺-NaCMC gelation mechanism and small angle neutron scattering (SANS) to spatio-temporally resolve the solution-to-network structure during front propagation. We find that the polyelectrolyte chain cross-section remains largely unperturbed by gelation and identify three hierarchical structural features at larger length scales. Equipped with the understanding of gelation mechanism and kinetics, using microfluidics, we illustrate the fabrication of range of HMP particles with prescribed morphologies.

Keywords: polyelectrolyte gel; sodium carboxymethyl cellulose; microparticles; hydrogel; small angle neutron scattering; ionic gelation; front propagation; FTIR

Share and Cite

MDPI and ACS Style

Sharratt, W.N.; Lopez, C.G.; Sarkis, M.; Tyagi, G.; O’Connell, R.; Rogers, S.E.; Cabral, J.T. Ionotropic Gelation Fronts in Sodium Carboxymethyl Cellulose for Hydrogel Particle Formation. Gels 2021, 7, 44. https://doi.org/10.3390/gels7020044

AMA Style

Sharratt WN, Lopez CG, Sarkis M, Tyagi G, O’Connell R, Rogers SE, Cabral JT. Ionotropic Gelation Fronts in Sodium Carboxymethyl Cellulose for Hydrogel Particle Formation. Gels. 2021; 7(2):44. https://doi.org/10.3390/gels7020044

Chicago/Turabian Style

Sharratt, William N., Carlos G. Lopez, Miriam Sarkis, Gunjan Tyagi, Róisín O’Connell, Sarah E. Rogers, and João T. Cabral. 2021. "Ionotropic Gelation Fronts in Sodium Carboxymethyl Cellulose for Hydrogel Particle Formation" Gels 7, no. 2: 44. https://doi.org/10.3390/gels7020044

APA Style

Sharratt, W. N., Lopez, C. G., Sarkis, M., Tyagi, G., O’Connell, R., Rogers, S. E., & Cabral, J. T. (2021). Ionotropic Gelation Fronts in Sodium Carboxymethyl Cellulose for Hydrogel Particle Formation. Gels, 7(2), 44. https://doi.org/10.3390/gels7020044

Note that from the first issue of 2016, this journal uses article numbers instead of page numbers. See further details here.

Article Menu

Ionotropic Gelation Fronts in Sodium Carboxymethyl Cellulose for Hydrogel Particle Formation

Abstract

Share and Cite

Article Metrics

Article Access Statistics

Further Information

Guidelines

MDPI Initiatives

Follow MDPI