RHEOLOGICAL PROPERTIES OF HYDROGELS PRODUCED BY CELLULOSE DERIVATIVES CROSSLINKED WITH CITRIC ACID, SUCCINIC ACID AND SEBACIC ACID

Abstract

"Cellulose is the most abundant biopolymer in our world, and a natural, biodegradable and inexpensive resource for biomaterials. This work prepared cellulose-based hydrogels by cross-linking cellulose derivatives using citric acid, succinic acid, and sebacic acid, and explored the rheological properties of the three cellulose-based hydrogels. We found that the viscoelastic properties of this kind of cellulose-based biodegradable hydrogels can be manipulated by hydrogel concentration and using the three different cross-linkers. The cellulose-based hydrogels cross-linked with citric acid (CHCCA) and the cellulose-based hydrogels cross-linked with succinic acid (CHCSUA) exhibited nearly identical rheological behaviors (both linear and non-linear), due to the similar structure of the citric acid and succinic acid. Both CHCCA and CHCSUA showed similar viscoelastic solid gel-like behaviors, and the viscoelastic properties were stronger when hydrogel concentrations were increased. The CHCCA and CHCSUA also displayed nearly identical shear thinning behaviors, among all measured shearing rates. The cellulose-based hydrogels cross-linked with sebacic acid (CHCSEA) exhibited viscoelastic liquid or fluid-like behaviors, which are clearly different from those for the CHCCA and CHCSUA. The CHCSEA showed shear thinning characteristics during high shearing rates, but a Newtonian region at low shearing rates. This work paves the way for developing various inexpensive biodegradable cellulose-based hydrogels with desired rheological properties specific to applications such as cosmetic gels and woundhealing materials."