| Abstract: | Snake-cage hydrogels were prepared by the association of poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) and sodium alginate. The aim of this work is to study the viscoelastic properties of PVA networks having different molecular weights and trapping alginates of various mannuronate/guluronate ratios, molecular weights and aqueous concentration. The elastic and viscous moduli, G′ and G″, were found to depend on alginate concentration. With the sodium alginate (mannuronate/guluronate =1.78, M̄w=380 000), the elasticity was observed to be independent of the PVA molecular weight in the 7.5% to 10% (w/w) concentration range. Hydrogels elasticity was found to be sodium alginate nature-dependent only in the case of PVA with M̄w =22 000. Moreover, it seems that the viscoelastic parameters G′ and G″ become increasingly insensitive to the nature of sodium alginate as the molecular weight of PVA increases. |
