• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.256-262
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• 2012

Hyaluronic acid(HA) hydrogels were synthesized by immersing HA microbeads in phosphate buffered saline solutions having different pH levels to assess the effect of pH on the swelling ratio of HA hydrogels for smart drug delivery systems. No beads were formed when the HA solution(below pH 9) was crosslinked with divinyl sulfone(DVS) because DVS is a basic solution. The variation regarding the size of the microbead was not significant, suggesting that the bead size is not a function of pH(10 ~ 14). However, the pore size of the microbeads decreased with increasing pH from 10 to 14, leading to the surface smoothness and dense network as a result of higher crosslinking. The swelling ratio of hydrogels increased when the pH rose from 2(acidic) to 6(neutral). Afterwards, it decreased with further increasing pH(basic). The lower swelling ratio may be due to the lack of ionization of the carboxyl groups. On the other hand, a higher swelling ratio is likely due to the increased electrostatic repulsions between negatively charged carboxyl groups on different chains. Experimental results suggested that pH-responsive HA hydrogels can be applicable to the controlled drug delivery systems.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.117-122
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• 2013

Hyaluronic acid(HA) microbeads were synthesized by dropping the sodium hyaluronate(Streptococcus) solutions in NaOH into a solution mixture of divinyl sulfone(DVS) in 2-methyl-1-propanol, followed by stirring, cleaning and drying process at room temperature. The initial experimental conditions are crosslinking time(CLTi) of 5 h, crosslinking temperature(CLTe) of room temperature, injection air pressure(IAPr) of 5 psi, and DVS concentration( DVSc) of 0.2 vol%, respectively. Then, parametric studies were performed by varying the parameters to investigate the morphology, the porosity, the swelling ratio and the size of the beads. The microbead size pattern was not regular to function of the degree of crosslink. It was observed that the swelling ratio, the degree of crosslink, and the pore size can be controlled by adjusting the CLTi, CLTe and DVSc. Among the parameters investigated, the smallest bead size can be achieved by varying the CLTi parameter. The lowest swelling ratio, as an indication of the highest degree of crosslink, can be obtained by varying CLTe.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.49 no.6
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• pp.518-522
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• 2012

Hyaluronic acid (HA) microbeads were synthesized by dropping 0.5 wt% of sodium hyaluronate dissolved in NaOH into 0.2 vol% of divinyl sulfone dissolved in 2-methyl-1propanol at a speed of 0.005 ml/min. HA microbeads were collected from a divinyl sulfone crosslinker solution stirred at 200 to 400 rpm for 5 h at temperatures from room temperature to $60^{\circ}C$ at intervals of $10^{\circ}C$. The crosslinked microbeads were then cleaned thoroughly using distilled water and ethanol. SEM results revealed that the microbeads were white-colored spheres. The 3-D porous network structure of the microbeads became dense with an increase in the crosslinking temperature; however, no dependence of the crosslinking temperature on the microbead size was detected. The extent of swelling decreased from 970% to 670% with an increase in the crosslinking temperature from room temperature to $60^{\circ}C$, most likely due to the increase in the degree of crosslinking.