Aggregation and transport of Brij surfactants in hydroxyethyl methacrylate hydrogels

Surfactant loaded polymeric hydrogels find applications in several technological areas including drug delivery. Drug transport can be attenuated in surfactant loaded gels through partitioning of the drug in the surfactant aggregates. The drug transport depends on the type of the aggregates and also on the surfactant transport because diffusion of the surfactant leads to dissolution of the aggregates. The drug and the surfactant transport can be characterized by the surfactant monomer diffusivity Ds. and the critical aggregation concentration C(*). Here we focus on the transport in hydroxyethyl methacrylate (HEMA) hydrogels loaded with three different types of Brij surfactants. We measure transport of a hydrophobic drug cyclosporine and the surfactant for surfactant loadings ranging from 0.1% to 8%, and utilize the data to predict the values of Ds. and C(*). We show that the predictions based on surfactant transport are significantly different from those based on modeling the drug transport. The differences are attributed to the assumption of just one type of aggregate in the gel irrespective of the total concentration. The transport data suggests existence of multiple types of aggregates and this hypothesis is validated for Brij 98 by imaging of the microstructure with free fracture SEM.