Investigation of physical-chemical properties of agarose hydrogels with embedded emulsions.

Composite agarose hydrogels with embedded tetradecane emulsions stabilized by cetylpyridinium chloride were studied. The absorption efficiency of 4-nitrophenyl ethers of carbonic acids by the composite agarose gels increases with the length of the hydrocarbon tail of the ester. The diffusion rate of amphiphilic substances in the composite gels was demonstrated to be much less that than in the standard agarose gels. The reaction kinetics between the esters and dodecylmercaptan dissolved in tetradecane droplets of composite hydrogel was studied. In the region of physiological pH, the reactivity of SH groups embedded in the composite agarose gel in the reaction with the esters is significantly higher than that in a homogeneous solution. Hydrogels with embedded emulsion droplets are of considerable practical importance as drug delivery systems, microreactors, and absorbers. Composite gels filled with emulsions incorporating lipophilic mercaptanes are effective absorbers of heavy metal ions.

Intelligent gels and cryogels with entrapped emulsions.

Smart thermoresponsive gels and cryogels with incorporated emulsions have been synthesized and studied. The gels were obtained by three-dimensional copolymerization of N-isopropylacrylamide and N,N'-methylene-bis-acrylamide or N,N'-bis(acryloyl)cystamine in the presence of dispersion of tetradecane stabilized with sodium dodecylsulfate. Polymerization was performed at room temperature and below the water crystallization temperature. Both composite gels and cryogels were capable of heat-induced collapse. The extent of the collapse of the composite gel prepared at room temperature was much smaller and without squeezing of the lipophilic phase out of the shrunk composite gel. In contrast, shrinking of the composite cryogel was accompanied by release of tetradecane emulsion.

Effect of polymer charge density and ionic strength on the formation of complexes between sodium arylamido-2-methyl-1-propane-sulfonate-co-acrylamide gels and cetylpyridinium chloride.

The effects of sodium chloride on the composition and structure of polyelectrolyte gel-surfactant complexes (PSCs) formed by the sodium salt of acrylamide-2-methyl-1-propane-sulfonic acid-co-acrylamide gels and cetylpyridinium chloride have been studied. At a low ionic strength of the solution, the composition of all the complexes is close to stoichiometric by charge. In the presence of 0.3 M sodium chloride, the composition of the complexes formed by the gel with 99 mol % charged groups is close to stoichiometric, while for the gel with 33 mol % charged monomer units, a nonstoichiometric complex with a high excess of the surfactant is formed. Further decrease of the charge density up to 10 mol % leads to partial or complete dissociation of the PSCs. The study of PSCs by the method of small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) shows that the complexes formed by the gels with high and intermediate charge densities are highly ordered. The decrease of the charge density of the swollen networks at first leads to a change in symmetry of the ordered domains in the PSCs and then to their disordering. The formation of nonstoichiometric PSCs at a high enough concentration of salt is explained by the effect of fitting, when the packing of the surfactant and polymer components in the PSCs is improved due to the inclusion of extra surfactant molecules together with their counterions in the ordered domains.