Hi all,
If anyone could help me to answer this question, I would deeply appreciate it. I am looking to produce 500um beads. Currently, I have been using the drop based method which means I have been forcing the liquid alginate through a syringe into a bath of calcium chloride. However, I want to better standardise the size and shape of the alginate microbeads.
I have come across quite a few papers using a combinations of hydrogels but not alginate alone and I wanted to know if anyone else knows if you can produce alginate hydrogels of the right size using SLM or 3D printing.
Any links or help would be deeply appreciated.
Abdullah
Dear friend,
You can use the electrospray method
In this method, using an external field (applying high voltage with/without considering the frequency) produce beads with a mono-sized distribution and much smaller.
The following references, which are my previous works, can be useful:
Moghadam, H., Samimi, M., Samimi, A., & Khorram, M. (2008). Electro-spray of high viscous liquids for producing mono-sized spherical alginate beads. Particuology, 6(4), 271-275.
Moghadam, H., Samimi, M., Samimi, A., & Khorram, M. (2010). Electrospray modeling of highly viscous and non‐Newtonian liquids. Journal of applied polymer science, 118(3), 1288-1296.
Khorram, M., Samimi, M., Samimi, A., & Moghadam, H. (2015). Electrospray preparation of propranolol‐loaded alginate beads: Effect of matrix reinforcement on loading and release profile. Journal of Applied Polymer Science, 132(4).
Mohsen Samimi
Thank you for the help. I have looked into the electrospray method but I thought it does not allow for exact control of bead size and therefore leads to a large difference in bead size.
Best wishes,
Abdullah
- Badges
- Science topic
- Similar topics
- Engineering
- Mechanical Engineering