Portable Quartz Crystal Resonator Sensor for Characterising the Gelation Kinetics and Viscoelastic Properties of Hydrogels

Hydrogel biomaterials have found use in various biomedical applications partly due to their biocompatibility and tuneable viscoelastic properties. The ideal rheological properties of hydrogels depend highly on the application and should be considered early in the design process. Rheometry is the mos...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Gels 2022, Vol.8 (11), p.718
Main Authors: Miranda-Martínez, Andrés, Yan, Hongji, Silveira, Valentin, Serrano-Olmedo, José Javier, Crouzier, Thomas
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Acoustics
Alginates
Analysis
Bio Materials
Biocompatibility
Biological products
Biomaterial
Biomedical materials
Covalent bonds
covalently crosslinked hydrogels
Crosslinked polymers
Crosslinking
Gelation
hydrogel kinetics characterisation
Hydrogels
Low cost
Mechanical properties
Medicin och hälsovetenskap
Molecular weight
physically crosslinked hydrogels
Portability
quartz crystal resonator
Quartz crystals
Resonators
Rheological properties
Rheology
Rheometry
Sensors
Viscoelasticity
Viscosity
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Summary:Hydrogel biomaterials have found use in various biomedical applications partly due to their biocompatibility and tuneable viscoelastic properties. The ideal rheological properties of hydrogels depend highly on the application and should be considered early in the design process. Rheometry is the most common method to study the viscoelastic properties of hydrogels. However, rheometers occupy much space and are costly instruments. On the other hand, quartz crystal resonators (QCRs) are devices that can be used as low-cost, small, and accurate sensors to measure the viscoelastic properties of fluids. For this reason, we explore the capabilities of a low-cost and compact QCR sensor to sense and characterise the gelation process of hydrogels while using a low sample amount and by sensing two different crosslink reactions: covalent bonds and divalent ions. The gelation of covalently crosslinked mucin hydrogels and physically crosslinked alginate hydrogels could be monitored using the sensor, clearly distinguishing the effect of several parameters affecting the viscoelastic properties of hydrogels, including crosslinking chemistry, polymer concentrations, and crosslinker concentrations. QCR sensors offer an economical and portable alternative method to characterise changes in a hydrogel material’s viscous properties to contribute to this type of material design, thus providing a novel approach.
ISSN:2310-2861
2310-2861
DOI:10.3390/gels8110718