STUDY OF THE NETWORK STRUCTURE OF SWOLLEN CELLULOSE DERIVATIVES USED IN PHARMACEUTICAL APPLICATIONS

摘要

To elucidate the structure of swollen cellulose derivatives at equilibrium conditions we determined their mesh size, a parameter that is very valuable in the prediction of the drug release behavior. Our results indicated that the values of the effective molecular weight of the cellulose chains between two consecutive physical entanglements varied significantly with cellulose grade. The mesh size of the ensuing hydrogels was evaluated by combining the number of polymer repeating units between entanglements and the number of entanglements per polymer chain.