Summary

The project aim is to approach structural aspects of polysaccharide hydrogels with self-healing properties or represented by interpenetrating polymer networks (IPN) using electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectroscopy. This is a physico-chemical method that provides highly specific local information on the environment around the paramagnetic species in a range of several nanometers. As polysaccharides are diamagnetic, spin labelling will be a necessary step in studying these hydrogels by EPR, in order to obtain information that can be further exploited in tailoring the properties of a particular hydrogel.

The major goals of this project are:

1 - to get insight into the formation of hydrogels resulted through non-covalent assembly of polysaccharides;

2 - to analyse gel properties and some processes taking place inside the hydrogel network, which can generate hybrid materials, all these in connection with their possible applications.

These goals will be pursued by following five research objectives:

O1. Design of spin labelled self-healing hydrogels based on host-guest interactions;

O2. Design of interpenetrating polymer network (IPN) hydrogels involving polysaccharides and the study of their behaviour by EPR spectroscopy;

O3. Exploration of mesh size using EPR measurements and distribution of spin probes in the non-homogeneous systems represented by polysaccharide hydrogels;

O4. Obtaining hybrid materials represented by self-healing and IPN polysaccharide hydrogels and inorganic nanoparticles;

O5. Investigation of processes occurring in alginate/hyaluronic acid hydrogels embedded with riboflavin and irradiated with UVA light.