Crosslinking of nanocellulose for hydrogel preparation

V diplomskem delu bom predstavila različne načine zamreženja nanoceluloze za pripravo hidrogelov. Pojem hidrogel predstavlja zamrežen, hidrofilni polimer, ki ima sposobnost, da absorbira in zadrži velike količine vode. Za pripravo takega hidrogela lahko nanocelulozo zamrežimo kemijsko z dodatkom zamrežljivih polimernih matrik ali fizikalno z vodikovimi vezmi, ionskim kompleksiranjem in podobno. Pri zamreževanju se lahko uporabljajo nanocelulozne fibrile ali nanocelulozni kristali, odvisno od lastnosti, ki jih želimo doseči pri nastalem hidrogelu. Fibrile se strukturno lažje zapletajo in mrežijo med tem ko je pri kristalih sposobost zamreženja omejena zaradi toge strukture. Tovrstni hidrogeli so biokompatibilni in biorazgradljivi, zato so zelo uporabni v tkivnem inženirstvu in regenerativni medicini.In my diploma I will present different ways of crosslinking nanocellulose for the preparation of hydrogels. The term hydrogel represents a cross-linked, hydrophilic polymer that has the ability to absorb and retain large amounts of water. To prepare such a hydrogel, nanocellulose can be chemically cross-linked by adding cross-linkable polymer matrices or physically by hydrogen bonds, ion complexation and so on. In crosslinking, nanocellulose fibrils or nanocellulose crystals can be used, depending on the properties we want to achieve in the resulting hydrogel. Fibrils are structurally more easily entangled and cross-linked, while the cross-linking ability of crystals is limited due to their rigid structure. This kind of hydrogels are biocompatible and biodegradable, so they are very useful in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine