@article{Caccavo2016,

title = {Modeling capillary formation in calcium and copper alginate gels},

author = { Diego Caccavo and Anna Str\"{o}m and Anette Larsson and Gaetano Lamberti},

url = {http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0928493115302940},

doi = {10.1016/j.msec.2015.08.040},

issn = {09284931},

year  = {2016},

date = {2016-01-01},

journal = {Materials Science and Engineering: C},

volume = {58},

pages = {442--449},

abstract = {Alginate solutions in the presence of bivalent ions can form ionic cross-linked gels. In particular gelation conditions the gel structure can be characterized by great anisotropy with the presence of straight capillaries along a preferential direction. These materials can find applications mainly in high-tech sectors, like tissue engineering, where the gel characteristics play a crucial role. Despite the need of mastering the capillary formation and properties, the process remains a poorly known problem, and its development is left to trial and error procedures. In this work a quantitative approach to the description of the capillary formation process has been developed. The theory proposed by Treml et al. (2003) has been implemented and extended to an alginate different from the one used in that study and two different ions (calcium and copper). Some of the model parameters have been derived through simple measurements; others have been scaled using proper scaling equations. Experiments have been performed in different gelation conditions, varying alginate and ionic solution concentrations, to highlight the effects of these parameters on the anisotropic structure and to validate the model. In all the analyses done, the model has performed nicely showing a good reliability in the prediction of gel characteristics like capillary formation, capillary length and process time.},

keywords = {Alginate, Gel capillaries, Hydrogel Characterization, Hydrogel Modeling, Ionotropic gelation, Modeling},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{Barba2014b,

title = {Modeling of the reticulation kinetics of alginate/pluronic blends for biomedical applications},

author = { Anna Angela Barba and Gaetano Lamberti and Luca Rabbia and Mario Grassi and Domenico Larobina and Gabriele Grassi},

url = {http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0928493114000423},

doi = {10.1016/j.msec.2014.01.034},

issn = {09284931},

year  = {2014},

date = {2014-01-01},

journal = {Materials Science and Engineering: C},

volume = {37},

pages = {327--331},

abstract = {In this work, blends of alginate/pluronic (F127) for biomedical applications were investigated. In particular, the kinetics of alginate chain reticulation by bivalent cations was studied by experimental and modeling approaches. Two kinds of sodium alginate were tested to obtain hard gel films. The thicknesses of the reticulated alginate films were measured as function of the exposure time and of the reticulating copper (Cu2+) solution concentration. The kinetics was described by a proper model able to reproduce the experimental data. The model parameters, evaluated based on the measurements of thicknesses as function of Cu2+ concentration and exposure time, were further validated by comparing the prediction of the model with another set of independent measurement; here, the depletion of Cu2+ ions in the conditioning solution above the reacting gel is measured as function of time. The tuned model could be used in the description of the future applications of the blends.},

keywords = {Alginate, Hydrogel Modeling, Modeling, Pluronic, Reticulation},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}