Effect of polymer-polymer interactions on the flow behavior of some polysaccharide-based hydrogel blends

This study is the continuation of our previous work (Kopač, Abrami, et al., 2021) where the theoretical approach of polymer-polymer interaction to predict the crosslink density of hydrogels was introduced. This theory is further extended to the flow properties of hydrogels that allow the analysis of synergistic effect in hydrogel systems and the understanding of possible anomalous behavior of certain mixtures. Various hydrogel structures were prepared accordingly by blending scleroglucan, anionic nanocellulose, Laponite dispersions and alginate solution. The relationship between mechanical and flow properties of the hydrogel network was carefully studied and eventually described by mathematical model. The linear model equation to predict yield stress of hydrogels in relation to the crosslink density was designed showing a satisfactory agreement between experimental data and model predictions. The correlation was adjusted by defining a proportionality coefficient, representing the energy defined per moles of crosslinks that can be used to restore the deformation.