Fabrication of hydrogel hybrid membranes using bijels approach

Abstract

Bicontinuous interfacially jammed emulsion gels (bijels) emerged recently as new materials with two interwoven fluid domains. With such architecture, bijels or bijels-derived materials have great potential for biomedical applications. However, most current bijels are not biocompatible. In this study, fabrication of bijels-derived hydrogel hybrid membranes of biocompatible materials was investigated. Bijels structures were manufactured through the solvent transfer-induced phase separation. Silica nanoparticles were used to stabilize the interface in bijels. Hexanedioldiacrylate was the oil phase in bijels and was cured by UV. After curing, bijels membranes were immersed in Na-alginate solution for forming continuous alginate phase in membranes, followed by crosslinking of alginate. Different techniques were used to characterize products at different fabrication stages. The bicontinuous bijels structure was clearly seen under SEM and confocal microscopy. Interconnected pores in bijels structures ranged from 3 to 10 microns in diameter. They were mostly filled by crosslinked alginate hydrogel in hybrid membranes.