I have been trying to prepare PVA based hydrogel by drying the viscous liquid in air atmosphere but the hydrogel isn't formed every time. Is skipping the freeze-drying process responsible for not forming the hydrogel?
Please suggest an alternative to freeze-drying as I don't have access to freeze-drier.
Hi Mr. Adam,
Generally speaking, freeze-drying is not net a necessary step for hydrogel formation. A significant number of literatures has already reported hydrogel preparation without using freeze-drying technique. There is a wide array of factors that can induce gel formation.
Thank you for your valuable response. Could you please suggest something I can do to improve the chances of forming hydrogel?
Thank you.
Abdullahi Abbas Adam Try to read this article.
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/2053-1591/aaa6e6#:~:text=Gelation%20mechanism%20in%20PVA%E2%80%93borax,crosslinker%20complexes%20of%20the%20hydrogels.
If you already used a crosslinker and hydrogel was not formed, then crosslinking was not successful.
- Badges
- Science topic
- Similar topics
- Analytical Chemistry
- Extraction