MODELING PHASE-TRANSITIONS AND SORPTION-DESORPTION KINETICS IN THERMOSENSITIVE GELS FOR CONTROLLED DRUG-DELIVERY SYSTEMS

Phase equilibrium and kinetic models for describing the swelling of hy drogels are considered. The swelling equilibrium model is based on an effective Flory-Huggins model coupled with a phantom network model in the framework of the Flory-Rehner theory, The kinetic model used is th at proposed by Camera-Roda and Sarti, which is capable to describe non Fickian diffusion that occures in hydrogels. The models are coupled a nd applied to non charged thermo-sensitive hydrogels and the results o btained show a good agreement between experimental and calculated data .