Affiliation:
1. University of Nis, Serbia
2. University of Belgrade, Serbia
Abstract
The latest development in the field of smart hydrogels application as drugs carriers is shown in this chapter. Hydrogels are three-dimensional polymer network consisting of at least one hydrophilic monomer. They are insoluble in water, but in the excess presence of water or physiological fluids, swell to the equilibrium state. The amount of absorbed water depends on the chemical composition and the crosslinking degree of 3D hydrogel network and reaches over 1000% of the xerogel weight. Stimuli-responsive hydrogels exhibit significant change of their properties (swelling, color, transparency, conductivity, shape) due to small changes in the external environment conditions (pH, ionic strength, temperature, light wavelength, magnetic or electric fields, ultrasound, or a combination thereof). This smart hydrogels, with different physical and chemical properties, chemical structure and technology of obtaining, show great potential for application in the pharmaceutical industry. The application of smart hydrogels is very promising and at the beginning of the development and exploitation.
Reference132 articles.
1. Phase transitions in the system poly(N-isopropylacrylamide)/water and swelling behaviour of the corresponding networks
2. Aguilar, M. R., Elvira, C., Gallardo, A., Vázquez, B., & Román, J. S. (2007). Smart polymers and their applications as biomaterials. Topics in Tissue Engineering, 3(6).
3. Magnetically doped multi stimuli-responsive hydrogel microspheres with IPN structure and application in dye removal
4. Light-sensitive Intelligent Drug Delivery Systems
5. Anderson, D., & Schindler, J. (2014). U.S. Patent Application 14/213,808. Washington, DC: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.