Novel synthesis of PVA/GA hydrogel microspheres based on microfluidic technology
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Novel synthesis of PVA/GA hydrogel microspheres based on microfluidic technology Dengyu Luo 1 & Lin Guo 1 & Yuan Wang 1 & Pingping Wang 1 & Zhenqi Chang 1 Received: 11 February 2020 / Accepted: 21 April 2020 # Akadémiai Kiadó 2020
Abstract The hydrogel microspheres of polyvinyl alcohol (PVA)/ glutaraldehyde (GA) used as embolic agent can be applied in the embolization therapy. The mechanical properties and size precision of the hydrogel microspheres have a strong influence on its clinical application. In this work, the microfluidic technology was employed in the preparation of size-controlled PVA/GA hydrogel microspheres, and a novel in-situ gelation system was proposed. The influences of cross-linker (GA) content and the total content of PVA and GA in the dispersed phase, and catalyst content in the continuous phase on the compressive strength and deformation of PVA/GA gel microspheres were investigated in detail. Also, the kinetic behaviours of the formation of PVA/GA hydrogel microspheres in the microfluidic system were studied, and the results indicated that the gelation processes based on microfluidics accord to first-order reaction. Keywords Microfluidics . Droplet-based . Synthesis . PVA/GA hydrogel . Embolization
Introduction Hydrogels are three-dimensional hydrophilic polymer networks that are able to take in and keep large amount of water [1]. Besides, as cross-links between polymeric chains are introduced, networks obtained show viscoelastic and sometimes purely elastic behaviour. Because of the special structure of networks, hydrogels have been used widely in the field of pharmacy and biomedicine. Synthetic polymers such as polyethylene oxide (PEO), poly-N-vinyl pyrrolidone (PVP), polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) as well as natural polymers, such as polysaccharides, have received enormous attention from researchers. Hydrogels of these polymers are, in general, nontoxic, biocompatible, biodegradable and abundant, especially Article Highlights Fabrication of PVA/GA hydrogel microspheres by a novel in-situ gelation reaction in microfluidics. Precise size control of embolic microspheres with a very narrow size distribution. PVA/GA hydrogel formation kinetics of a first order reaction in microfluidic preparation. * Zhenqi Chang [email protected] 1
Department of Engineering and Applied Physics, University of Science and Technology of China, Huang-Shan Road, He-Fei, People’s Republic of China
PVA which is currently receiving a great deal of interest for medical and pharmaceutical applications. The main reasons for this increasing attention certainly ascribe to its intrinsic properties. Indeed, PVA is one of the most frequent and the oldest synthetic polymer hydrogels that has been applied in several advanced biomedical applications, such as wound dressing [2, 3], drug delivery systems [4, 5], artificial organs [6], and embolic agent [7]. Transcatheter arterial embolization (TAE) or transcatheter arterial chemoembolization (TACE), which aimed to block the hepatic artery to inhibit the blood supply of s
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