Whit in the scope of this master's thesis I tried to influence the viscosity, shear modulus and mesh size of the final hydrogel, which could then be used for controlled drug release, by combining hydrogels prepared from different biopolymers. To achieve a smaller mesh size and better mechanical properties, the hydrogels were crosslinked using calcium chloride solution as a crosslinker. Rheological measurements were used to determine the shear modulus and viscosity of every individual sample. The cross-link density was calculated via the obtained shear modules, followed by the mesh size of the hydrogel. Since the planned release tests were not performed, the diffusion coefficients of the selected model drug were determined only theoretically via mathematical models.
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