document: Equilibrium swelling and kinetics of pH-responsive hydrogels : models , experiments , and simulations The widespread application of ionic hydrogels in a number of applications like control of microfluidic flow , development of muscle-like actuators , filtration/separation and drug delivery makes it important to properly understand these materials . Understanding hydrogel properties is also important from the standpoint of their similarity to many biological tissues . Typically , gel size is sensitive to outer solution pH and salt concentration . In this paper , we develop models to predict the swelling/deswelling of hydrogels in buffered pH solutions . An equilibrium model has been developed to predict the degree of swelling of the hydrogel at a given pH and salt concentration in the solution . A kinetic model has been developed to predict the rate of swelling of the hydrogel when the solution pH is changed . Experiments are performed to characterize the mechanical properties of the hydrogel in different pH solutions . The degree of swelling as well as the rate of swelling of the hydrogel are also studied through experiments . The simulations are compared with experimental results and the models are found to predict the swelling/deswelling processes accurately
doc_bio_tags: O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B I O O O O O O O O B I O O O O O O O O B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B I I O O B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O
extractive_keyphrases: ionic hydrogels microfluidic flow drug delivery gel size buffered ph solutions equilibrium model mechanical properties
abstractive_keyphrases: ph-responsive hydrogels muscle-like actuators filtration/separation swelling/deswelling