The effect of glycerin content in sodium alginate/poly(vinyl alcohol)- based hydrogels for wound dressing application

Abstract

The impact of different amounts of glycerin, which was used in the system of sodium alginate/poly(vinyl alcohol) (SA/PVA) hydrogel materials on the properties, such as gel fraction, swelling ability, degradation in simulated body fluids, morphological analysis, and elongation tests were presented. The study shows a significant decrease in the gel fraction from 80.5 2.1% to 45.0 1.2% with the increase of glycerin content. The T5 values of the tested hydrogels were varied and range from 88.7 C to 161.5 C. The presence of glycerin in the matrices significantly decreased the thermal resistance, which was especially visible by T10 changes (273.9 to 163.5 C). The degradation tests indicate that most of the tested materials do not degrade throughout the incubation period and maintain a constant ion level after 7-day incubation. The swelling abilities in distilled water and phosphate buffer solution are approximately 200–300%. However, we noticed that these values decrease with the increase in glycerin content. All tested matrices are characterized by the maximum elongation rate at break in a range of 37.6–69.5%. The FT-IR analysis exhibits glycerin changes in hydrogel structures, which is associated with the cross-linking reaction. Additionally, cytotoxicity results indicate good adhesion properties and no toxicity towards normal human dermal fibroblasts.