Christian Wolf-Daehn

Bachelor student

Characterization of pre-crosslinked alginate and its combination with rigid biomaterials to build a hybrid structure

 

Supervisors: Vera Bednarzig, Prof. Aldo R. Boccaccini

The use of alginate as a biomaterial has gained more attention over the last decades. To improve the work with alginate, one possibility is the pre-crosslinking of it with CaCO3 and GDL [1]. With this procedure the alginate performs as a hydrogel which offers improved processability and printability using a 3D-printer. CaCl2 and BaCl2 work as post-crosslinker which give the 3D-printed alginate stability and diverse mechanical properties [2]. This thesis has the aim to characterize those properties of alginate hydrogels and also to take a closer look at the combination of it with metallic materials to build a hybrid structure.

[1] Augst, A. D., Kong, H. J. & Mooney, D. J. Alginate hydrogels as biomaterials. Macromol. Biosci. 6, 623–633 (2006)

[2] Ingar Draget, K., Østgaard, K. & Smidsrød, O. Homogeneous alginate gels: A technical approach. Carbohydr. Polym. 14, 159–178 (1990)