Rheological Characterization of Some Cellulose Derivatives-Based Hydrogels

Abstract

Cellulose derivatives serve as a feasible alternative to the insoluble natural cellulose considering their high solubility in the most frequent organic solvents and particularly in water. Alongside this advantageous physical property, cellulose derivatives exhibit proper biocompatibility, biodegradability, thermo-gelling nature, and mechanical characteristics. Due to their high hydrophilicity, these biopolymers possess a great capacity to absorb large amounts of water into their structural chains, forming hydrogels with multiple biomedical applications, such as wound healing. Therefore, the main objective of this present work was to assess the rheological properties of some cellulose derivatives-based hydrogels. For this purpose, different commercial varieties of methylcellulose and hydroxyethylcellulose, two of the most used cellulose derivatives, were dispersed in water and stirred continuously until a clear and transparent hydrogel was formed. Depending on the quantities used of each biopolymer, hydrogels of different concentrations were obtained, from 3 to 20%. The topical semisolid systems were rheologically investigated at 23°C using a rotational viscometer and the rheograms of the experimental data were drawn. The hydrogels showed a non-newtonian pseudoplastic behaviour, which represents a requested requirement for topical semisolid systems, both in terms of conditioning, but also of spreading on the skin surface, improving the topical administration.