Mathematical Modeling of Hydrogels: Gelation, Physical Properties, and Drug Delivery 2.0

A special issue of Gels (ISSN 2310-2861).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 April 2021) | Viewed by 5760

Special Issue Editors


E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Chemistry, Materials and Chemical Engineering “Giulio Natta”, Politecnico di Milano, Via Mancinelli 7, 20131 Milan, Italy
Interests: colloids; drug delivery; nanogels; tissue engineering; transport phenomena
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Macromolecular Engineering Laboratory, Department of Mechanical and Process Engineering, ETH Zürich, 8092 Zürich, Switzerland
Interests: hydrogels; tissue engineering; drug delivery; nanoparticles; macromolecular engineering
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Mathematical modeling has played a key role in the engineering and design of hydrogels for controlled drug delivery.

Mathematical models enable understanding of the critical physical phenomena involved in drug delivery systems and, once their predictive capability has been established, they can be used for the rational design of the device according to the desired performances.

Since the initial contributions of Prof. Takeru Higuchi in 1961, mathematical modeling of drug delivery systems has become a well-established and ever-expanding field. The development of new methods and software optimization as well as increasing computational power have contributed to a refinement of precision in drug delivery modeling. Now complex simulations can accommodate moving boundary conditions or the integration of disparate physical models. In addition, drug delivery modeling benefits not only from standard approaches based on fundamental mass, energy and momentum conservation equations, but also from methods focused on the molecular scale that act as a “computational microscope” and provide valuable insights not always accessible from an experimental point of view.

The present Special Issue is dedicated to an overview of the most relevant applications of mathematical models on the design of hydrogels for controlled drug delivery with special emphasis on gelation, physical properties, and final applications.

Dr. Filippo Rossi
Dr. Mark W. Tibbitt
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Gels is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2100 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • diffusion
  • drug delivery
  • gelation
  • mathematical modeling

Benefits of Publishing in a Special Issue

  • Ease of navigation: Grouping papers by topic helps scholars navigate broad scope journals more efficiently.
  • Greater discoverability: Special Issues support the reach and impact of scientific research. Articles in Special Issues are more discoverable and cited more frequently.
  • Expansion of research network: Special Issues facilitate connections among authors, fostering scientific collaborations.
  • External promotion: Articles in Special Issues are often promoted through the journal's social media, increasing their visibility.
  • e-Book format: Special Issues with more than 10 articles can be published as dedicated e-books, ensuring wide and rapid dissemination.

Further information on MDPI's Special Issue polices can be found here.

Related Special Issue

Published Papers (1 paper)

Order results
Result details
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:

Research

23 pages, 10427 KiB  
Article
Fabrication and Characterization of Poly (vinyl alcohol) and Chitosan Oligosaccharide-Based Blend Films
by Dilshad Qureshi, Ayasharani Sahoo, Biswaranjan Mohanty, Arfat Anis, Viktoryia Kulikouskaya, Kseniya Hileuskaya, Vladimir Agabekov, Preetam Sarkar, Sirsendu Sekhar Ray, Samarendra Maji and Kunal Pal
Gels 2021, 7(2), 55; https://doi.org/10.3390/gels7020055 - 6 May 2021
Cited by 24 | Viewed by 4717
Abstract
In the present study, we report the development of poly (vinyl alcohol) (PVA) and chitosan oligosaccharide (COS)-based novel blend films. The concentration of COS was varied between 2.5–10.0 wt% within the films. The inclusion of COS added a brown hue to the films. [...] Read more.
In the present study, we report the development of poly (vinyl alcohol) (PVA) and chitosan oligosaccharide (COS)-based novel blend films. The concentration of COS was varied between 2.5–10.0 wt% within the films. The inclusion of COS added a brown hue to the films. FTIR spectroscopy revealed that the extent of intermolecular hydrogen bonding was most prominent in the film that contained 5.0 wt% of COS. The diffractograms showed that COS altered the degree of crystallinity of the films in a composition-dependent manner. As evident from the thermal analysis, COS content profoundly impacted the evaporation of water molecules from the composite films. Stress relaxation studies demonstrated that the blend films exhibited more mechanical stability as compared to the control film. The impedance profiles indicated the capacitive-dominant behavior of the prepared films. Ciprofloxacin HCl-loaded films showed excellent antimicrobial activity against Escherichia coli and Bacillus cereus. The prepared films were observed to be biocompatible. Hence, the prepared PVA/COS-based blend films may be explored for drug delivery applications. Full article
Show Figures

Graphical abstract

Back to TopTop